Strong cultural forces cloud the debate on one-off rural homes, but the critics have a point

FEW THINGS IN Ireland are as sacred as the land.

Rural Ireland is a constant political talking point, farmland and plots are passed down through the generations, one of our most famous movies is called ‘The Field’.

Given all that, it’s perhaps unsurprising that many Irish people don’t like it when pointy-headed experts try to tell them what they can do with their land.

See the debate over one-off housing. The Housing Minister has promised to relax the rules around these developments, making it easier for people to build on rural sites.

James Browne has pledged that the new guidelines will be “mandatory” for all local authorities in an effort to boost populations in country communities.

In principle, it seems like it makes sense.

We’re in the middle of a housing crisis after all, and constantly being told we lack supply. So why not build more?

On top of that, there are strong cultural arguments. Farmers say their children should be able to build a home locally.

Rural politicians argue that restrictions preventing one-off housing drives young people away from areas which are already suffering from population decline.

So why have several planning experts come out against the plan to make it easier to build one-off homes?

Let’s go through some of the key arguments.

Define it

To start, it’s worth defining one-off housing, which is normally recognised as building a single home in a rural location, typically outside a town or village.

The nature of this leads to a very obvious drawback – car dependency.

People who live in one-off homes tend to be almost entirely reliant on their cars to get from A to B.

Why is this bad? Because private cars are extremely polluting – we now know that they throw large amounts of harmful chemicals into the air.

These chemicals are regularly cited by the Environmental Protection Agency as contributing to well over 1,000 premature deaths every year.

They also worsen air quality, with a knock-on negative impact on respiratory conditions such as COPD and asthma.

Then there are the planning issues. Improving public transport is almost universally regarded as a good thing. It lowers people’s cost of living and reduces pollution – a win-win.

But when officials look at installing a new bus stop, it makes sense to put it in an area where there are 100 homes, rather than one.

The likes of the National Transport Authority (NTA) have pushed for ‘higher density’ housing. That is, developing multiple homes close to each other to make it easier to provide new services – the opposite of one-off housing.

Other bodies, such as the Climate Change Advisory Council and the Irish Planning Institute, have similar views. They argue for tighter restrictions on one-off housing and promoting “more sustainable” development which can help lower pollution.

The ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) has noted that Ireland’s emissions reductions are particularly difficult to meet “partially due to a large proportion of the population living in rural one-off housing”.

The same issue arises with providing other services, such as electricity or water infrastructure. It is much more cost-effective to provide this all at the same time for 100 homes, than to do it 100 times individually for 100 one-off houses.

For example – a report from Maynooth University carried out on behalf of Kildare County Council previously estimated that local authorities with large amounts of one-off housing typically spend three times as much money on road infrastructure per person in the county. 

“Ten of the 31 local authorities in Ireland are estimated to have greater than half of housing classed as rural one-offs. These local authorities have an annual per capita spend on road maintenance of €194 on average,” it said.

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“In contrast to this, six local authorities have a rural one-off rate less than 4%, with per capita annual spend on road maintenance of €60 on average.”

Public transport

It was a similar story when it came to public transport. The report estimated that it costs local authorities three times as much money to provide these services in rural areas with “highly dispersed settlement patterns”.

Providing postal services and electricity infrastructure was also estimated to be significantly more expensive in areas with high numbers of one-off housing.

Finally, we can quickly mention the impact on the landscape and tourism. Visitors often come here to see ‘unspoiled’ landscapes, and there’s always the risk that more one-off housing could take away that appeal.

It is also worth injecting some reality into the debate. The likes of the Housing Minister have said that “rural people who want to remain in their local communities… find it almost impossible to build”.

The 2016 Census found that about a quarter of housing in Ireland was one-off.

In 2017, just under 4,300 of the homes completed in Ireland were classed as ‘single’, often used to refer to one-off housing.

That number has since increased to almost 6,000 in 2025, up by 12.5% compared to 2024.

Approval rates for one-off dwellings vary depending on the local authority.

However, the most recent figures from the CSO show that the number of one-off houses which received planning permission in the third quarter of 2025 jumped by 21.6% compared to the same period in 2024.

A study published late last year also found that four out of five counties analysed had a grant-rate of 70% or higher for one-off housing planning applications.

While building a one-off home may be more difficult in certain areas, it does not seem ‘almost impossible’.

The figures indicate that many local authorities continue to grant permission for one-off homes, despite bodies such as the NTA favouring more ‘compact’ development.

The likes of the Office of the Planning Regulator have also pushed back on claims from politicians that one-off housing is becoming a ‘rarity’.

Briefly, it’s worth noting that Ireland has a higher proportion of new one-off builds compared with several neighbouring countries.

In England, this category accounts for just under 10% of new housing – however, this does vary significantly across Europe.

Sprawl

To bring this back to the concerns of critics – many argue that Ireland already approves and builds a high number of one-off housing.

They say that this encourages sprawl, makes it more expensive to deliver services, and causes more pollution.

Most of Ireland’s national planning documents and policies promote more compact development, to support services within existing urban areas and rural towns.

This is a point made by the likes of An Taisce, which argue that one-off housing actually contributes to the decline in rural towns by drawing people away from centres.

They argue this makes it more difficult to sustain the likes of local shops, leading to business closures in rural areas, which can then push young people to be forced to leave for work.

Given Ireland’s cultural attachment to the land, there are no doubt strong cultural forces at play.

And with the housing crisis constantly looming, any approach to increase supply can seem to be a logical one.

However, most studies support the idea that critics of one-off housing have a point. And until now, the government seemed to be listening, emphasising more compact development.

A conscious shift to promoting more one-off housing is a major roll-back in policy, one which planners will likely continue to strongly oppose.

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