South Kerry in 'crisis' as severe shortage of housing leaves locals unable to find homes
Killarney is experiencing 'a perfect storm' in housing supply right now, according to a local auctioneer. Picture: Don MacMonagle
A "perfect storm" of external demand, tourist letting, and a lack of new builds is causing major issues in housing supply in Killarney and much of South Kerry.
Zoning issues, inflation, and conservation matters are also a factor, local representatives say.
The result is locals and new arrivals are scrambling to snap up the few homes that are listed for sale and there are concerns over the impact this will have on local culture, specifically in Irish language areas.
In Kenmare and the Ring of Kerry, the ire of the planning regulator is about to descend on Kerry County Council, where councillors have thrown overboard the national policy of developing urban areas before taking in more rural land.
Matters have not quite returned to the heady days of the Celtic Tiger. By 2010, six times the housing needed was provided for in massive land zoning. But Kenmare Municipal District councillors are currently seeking to double the zoning recommended by council planners.
In West Kerry, a protest in Dingle heard the Irish language was declining because planning in rural west Kerry is now impossible.
Then there’s ecology — much of Kerry has conservation areas of one kind or another.
In Killarney, two developments on Port Road, including one for 230 units, have been shot down because of their impact on the lesser horseshoe bat, whose ‘aerodrome’ is the nearby Deenagh River.
An Bord Pleanála's decision to block the development came as a surprise to the county council, which had supported the proposal.
Even more of a surprise is the current appeal by a group of anglers against the council's decision to approve the construction of 240 units in the eastern side of the town.
The appeal is by the Killorglin-based Laune Salmon and Trout Anglers’ Association. The anglers say large-scale applications should be considered "premature" until Kerry County Council and Uisce Éireann carry out upgrades to the storm and foul sewer systems in Killarney's sewer network.
A decision by An Bord Pleanála is not expected for some time.
Storm water is a long-standing issue in Killarney.
And the town is experiencing "a perfect storm" in housing supply right now, local auctioneer Michael Coghlan of Sherry Fitzgerald Coghlan said.
"It is a very serious issue," he said.
The housing crisis in Killarney is unique in Kerry, as Killarney attracts retirees and others who have sold up elsewhere and have cash.
Sufficient housing stock is simply not available. The number of houses sold in Killarney last year was down 25% — from about 300 a year to just 236.
With currently no new housing development, it is "very much a second-hand market", Mr Coghlan said.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, he said, but just not yet.
Land is selling and has not reached the heights of the Celtic Tiger, but it will take time before houses are available to buy.
"In the next 18 months to two years there will be supply," Mr Coghlan said.
Looking at the land banks — the land zoning tax is having an effect already in release of land to the market — planning for between 1,000 and 1,500 units is likely, he expects.
This observation is echoed by auctioneer Tom Spillane.
"The supply of land in the Killarney area has been very slow. The new vacant land tax has focused a lot of people’s minds," he said.
Land at Margaret’s Road, currently on the market, is attracting a lot of attention, for example, he said.
The Lodges, a high-end development on Ross Road, where prices start at €565,000, are being snapped up with all but a few of the 14 sold, Mr Spillane said.
Recently, a council meeting heard the "astronomical" prices in Killarney were "out of reach" for most people. The median price paid last year, according to the CSO's residential property price index, was €284,000.
Pressure is once again coming on rural areas.
Kerry County Council is being urged to "revisit" the current five-year local area plan for Killarney to free up rural planning. The plan was agreed only last year but it severely restricts development around Killarney because of "urban pressure".
For example, a decision on the route for the new N22 has yet to be taken, with thousands of acres of land remaining in limbo as a result.
Outgoing mayor of Killarney Brendan Cronin said it was no surprise to see younger people leaving Kerry in their droves in search of housing.
In the west, the lack of housing of any kind is an impediment to the native language in Dingle-Daingean Uí Chúis.
The Gaeltacht’s problems have to do with housing. Rút Ni Mhurchú of the language planning organisation Dúchas and Daingean is trying to increase the number of Irish speakers in Dingle.
Without housing, native speakers cannot put down roots.
Dingle is not yet a rent pressure zone so there is no restriction on short-term letting.
Houses that come on the market in Dingle town are bought for Airbnb and short-term summer letting, Ms Ní Mhurchú says.
"Between October and April there will be houses to rent, but when the season kicks in people have to leave."
Around Dingle, where up to two-thirds of the houses in any townland are holiday homes, local native speakers cannot get planning, while there are many homes left empty for much of the year outside the tourist season.
She described the situation in Dingle as a "géarchéim" — crisis — and said it was having a real impact on the language.
"People in their 30s and late 20s return to start up small enterprises and such. But they leave again. They have nowhere to live except with mom and dad and they are going back to the cities."
The small Gaeltacht in Iveragh in the south has similar challenges of Airbnb and second home culture and tight planning making homes for locals unaffordable.
In Kenmare and much of the Ring of Kerry, councillors are going into "battle" — the term was used by the Kenmare Municipal District manager Martin O’Donoghue — with the Office of the Planning Regulator, which was created to prevent a repeat of the mistakes of the Celtic Tiger era.
Housing in Kenmare has been stalled for seven years while waiting for a new sewage and wastewater treatment plant. The pent-up demand has led to enthusiastic zoning, The amended plan for the Kenmare Municipal District out for public consultation has provision now for more than 700 units in Kenmare — double the number recommended.
Independent councillor Johnny Healy-Rae said the planners’ recommendations would allow for only 480 units and that would not be enough.
"Nothing has been built in Kenmare since 2007, apart from social housing," Mr Healy-Rae said.
"This town is five to seven years behind and there will be a burst of building."
The planning regulator has until March 1 to make a submission on the plan.
"Zoning additional land is not the only solution to the housing crisis," senior planner with the council Damien Ginty said.
"We must zone sequentially out from the town centre and not rely on land on the periphery," he said.
Who owned the land could not be a planning consideration, he also said.
Patrick Connor-Scarteen, a Fine Gael councillor and auctioneer in Kenmare, said affordable housing for young families in Kenmare was "simply not there", and the time scale for the sewage plant was the end of 2025.
However, Mr Connor-Scarteen has reservations about the current proposed zoning. Twelve years ago, he and other councillors spent most of its time "dezoning" lands around Kenmare after the crash at the direction of the Department of the Environment.
In 2010, the department found Kerry was one of the worst offenders in the country for over-zoning. Its development plan had zoned for 61,000 housing units when what was needed was 11,000. Kerry was given a year to dezone.
"We are crying out for affordable housing. We do need adequate land. I don’t like the planning regulator dictating. People can’t get planning all along the Ring of Kerry because of the national secondary road. There is a need for more planning but there has to be more public consultation.
There needs to be balance, he said.
On a positive note, the sewage wastewater is being done in Kenmare and will be ready for 2025.
"It is difficult but there is light at the end of the tunnel," Mr Connor-Scarteen said.
Zoning and unlocking land is only one aspect of the storm, it is feared.
Labour supply to build houses is a worry, most planners and auctioneers say. Kerry craftsmen are still exiting to a more attractive climate overseas.
There is also a whole financial discussion to be had about release of money to small developers to build private housing, according to property professionals.
Second-hand houses are fetching huge prices. Recently in Woodlawn, a house that was built in the 1970s in need of much repair fetched €50,000 over the asking price.
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