This article is from page 1 of the 2012-09-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
OVER 24,000 houses were built in Clare during the past 20 years, despite the fact that the population of the county only increased by 15,000 during the same period.
The full extent of the building boom, that was experienced in Clare during the Celtic Tiger years, has been revealed in the latest census returns for the county, which show that in the 20-year period from 1991 to 2011, there was a 76 per cent increase in the number of houses in the county from 31,606 to 55,616.
Of this figure 42,534 of the houses are occupied, which means that there is a vacancy rate of 21.2 per cent in Clare, representing over one fifth of the county’s housing stock.
The numbers of vacant houses is 5,936, while there are a further 1,236 flats unoccupied. The number of holiday homes in the county stands at 4,610.
According to a recent report Clare was the most over-zoned county in the State with enough development for a population of 273,000.”