A choice of sites with full planning permission in West Cork

Baltimore, the Old Head of Kinsale and Innishannon are all in the mix for a self-build with no "locals only" restrictions

Sun, 12 Dec, 2021 - 12:05

Catherine Shanahan

WITH curbs on building one-off homes in rural locations, the arrival to market of a couple of sites not hamstrung by local authority restrictions will attract those interested in a self build.

The sites already have full planning permission which does away with a raft of requirements people not native to the area often face. For example, outside the towns of Bandon, Kinsale and Baltimore, non-locals need to have spent at least three years living in the area, or seven years in some cases, to have any hope of building their own home.

Returning emigrants looking to reside near immediate family or looking to work locally or to retire would also need to have lived in the area for more than seven years.

These rules would normally apply to anyone trying to build a home on the Old Head of Kinsale, but they won’t apply to whoever buys a new-to-market 1.44 acre site at Lispatrick, on the Old Head, which already has full planning permission for a four-bed, architecturally designed, 3,000 sq ft family home, with attached double garage.

“Coming without a local housing need requirement is rare and this makes this a very special offering,” says auctioneer Henry O’Leary, who is handling the sale.

In an area of outstanding natural beauty, on the Old Head 6km loop walk between Garrylucas/Garretstown beach and The Speckled Door bar and restaurant, the €250,000 site is generating lots of enquiries, Mr O’Leary says.

“A lot of Irish people who are living overseas and who are planning on coming home in the future are interested,” he says, adding that they’ll have plenty of time to get the build underway as the planning permission lasts five years”.

Lispatrick, Old Head of Kinsale 1.44 acre site

The site in question is part of a larger site, divided in two, with the developer intending to retain the other portion for their own use, which has planning permission for a similar home, with both homes part of the same planning application.

Mr O’Leary says you can see the sea from the site. The Clonakilty-based agent adds that “getting planning permission anywhere along the coast is quite difficult, so the buyer will be fortunate to get a site without restrictions”.

Lispatrick is near the exclusive and spectacularly-sited Old Head of Kinsale golf course where arrival by air to play a round of golf is de rigueur. Kinsale town is just 10 km away and Cork Airport is 32km.

Further west, a 0.35 acre (0.14 hectares) development site in the coastal village of Baltimore is also on the market, this time with a guide price of €400,000.

Owned by a well-known local family, the site has full planning permission for four, two-storey, three bed townhouses on Fisherman’s Row.

The selling agent is Liam Hodnett of Hodnett Forde and he says it’s a “prime site, centrally situated within the picturesque harbour village”.

It offers “excellent potential for investment” he adds, in this popular holiday destination, “where the harbour is magnificent and the coastline unspoiled”.

Not quite on the coastline, but nonetheless heading west, at Farnahoe in Innishannon, is another site, or rather two sites, for sale with Don Brennan of Sherry FitzGerald Brennan Busteed

Measuring 0.42 acres and 0.39 acres, each comes with full planning permission for a four-bed detached home of just under 2800 sq ft.