Limerick village of Adare has acute property shortage — for both the living and the dead

Cost of serviced house sites have skyrocketed while space in the local cemetery is running low

Adare, Co Limerick: House sites with services and planning permission are fetching up to €350,000.

The heritage village of Adare, Co Limerick, which will host the 2027 Ryder Cup, has become a residency hot spot for both the living and the dead.

The few remaining house sites in the picture-postcard hamlet have seen prices go through the roof. House sites with services and planning permission are fetching up to €350,000.

Local auctioneer John Giltinane said he knew of very few sites in Adare for sale. 

"Around Co Limerick, you can buy a fully serviced site with planning for about €60,000 to €70,000," he said. "Quarter acre sites in Adare, if you can get one, will cost five to six times what they cost elsewhere in the county."

The local dead will have to look elsewhere in the not too distant future, as St Nicholas cemetery, adjacent to the main street, is almost full, with only 24 single plots left.

While graves in most of the 267 cemeteries in the county, managed by Limerick City and County Council, can be pre-booked, a new grave in Adare can only be acquired on the death of a person when an immediate need arises.

A spokesman for Limerick council said a new development plan for cemeteries in the city and county was designed to help cope with increasing demand for a dwindling number of plots, especially in the city and its environs.

He said the city's major cemetery, Mt St Lawrence, and its extension, had no more space.

While there can be advance bookings for plots in cemeteries around the county, Adare can no longer be pre-booked.

The spokesman said: "Graves can only be purchased at the time of need in Adare.

"The previous practice of allowing purchase of plots in advance had led to families living in close proximity to a particular cemetery being unable to bury a loved on in the cemetery closest to their home.

Irish Association of Funeral Directors spokesman John Mark Griffin said the opening of a crematorium in Shannon in recent years had seen about a 20% increase in cremations in the Limerick area.

"Many families place the ashes of a loved one in the family grave. While graves may have no capacity for a coffin burial, an urn with ashes can be placed," he said.