This article is from page 12 of the 2012-10-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
DEVELOPERS in Clare continued to construct holidays homes in scenic areas of the county, even as the property market began to crash.
New figures released by the Central Statistic Office (CSO), reveal that the Banner County’s stock of holiday homes increased by more than 27 per cent in the five years from 2006 and 2011. While some of these developments were constructed in the second half of 2006, while prices continued to rise, the majority were constructed in 2007, 2008 and 2009 – when property prices were already in a sharp decline.
According to data obtained from the CSO, Clare had a total of 4,610 buildings classified as holiday homes in April of 2011. That is an increase of 986 on the 3,624 holiday homes recorded during the same month n 2006 – or an increase of 27.10 per cent.
With just under 60,000 holiday homes now in the country, one out of every 13 holiday homes which currently exist in Ireland are now located in Clare.
In fact, Clare is now the fifth most popular location for a holiday home, behind Donegal, Kerry, Cork and Wexford. Clare has gained on most of these counties with only the Banner county and Donegal recording a sizable increase in the number of holiday homes since 2006.
The price of purchasing a holiday home in the county has also dropped by between 40 per cent and 55 per cent since 2006.
Meanwhile, Clare has also recorded one of the highest levels of house vacancy in the country. According the the CSO figures, one in every four Clare houses, or 26.2 per cent, were vacant in April of 2011.
Of Clare’s total housing stock of 34,853, just over 4,300 houses were vacant, along with 377 vacant flats and 4,511 vacant holiday homes. Only Donegal, Leitrim and Kerry recorded a higher percentage of vacant homes than the Banner county.