Arnolds Karolis had a good idea. Things were a little crowded in his three-bedroom home on the Cloisters Estate. The house on the Tullow Road in Carlow was home to Karolis and his wife along with his stepson and stepdaughter. Their respective partners and children were also living with them. Karolis decided the solution to his problem was a mobile home in the back garden for his stepson and family.
The mobile home and adjoining shed were “modest and unobtrusive” and none of the neighbours objected. Carlow County Council, however, did not approve and sent him a letter; he then applied to the council for retention permission which was turned down and after that, he appealed to An Bord Pleanála. It sent an inspector who recommended temporary permission be granted for three years given that the housing supply was seriously constrained.
Two weeks ago An Bord Pleanála rejected its inspector’s recommendation saying the mobile home was “visually incongruous” and would set an “undesirable precedent”. These issues topped the problem of three families sharing a three-bed house.
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Bemused probably does not even come close to describing how Karolis – originally from Lithuania but living in Ireland for 22 years – must have felt when it was reported yesterday that the Government is now considering relaxing the rules around modular or cabin-style homes of less than 40sq m. If they proceed with the changes, which seem to have a fair wind behind them, planning permission will not be required for these structures. This is the case with extensions of a similar size and sheds.
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Karolis’s predicament encapsulates the argument in favour of making the changes. Sticking a mobile home in his back garden provided a quick and relatively low-cost solution to a problem that confronts many families: adult children, and in many cases their families, living in the family home out of necessity due to the unavailability of suitable accommodation.
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Setting aside the planning rules for these structures would seem to be a no-brainer. The latest house price data – showing the rate of increase doubling in 2024 – combined with the significant undershoot in the number of houses the then government predicted would be built last year – makes the idea only more attractive.
Some observers think the proposal has the potential to make a significant dent in the housing shortage. One think tank, Progress Ireland, calculates that there is the potential for up 350,000 of them to be plonked in back gardens countrywide.
Its optimism is founded on the success of similar schemes in the United States and Canada, where significant scale has been achieved by removing obstacles. This has included scrapping development levies and the need to provide car parking spaces. A big driver is not requiring owner occupancy, meaning they can be built to rent.
They highlight the experience of Vancouver in British Columbia, where nearly half of the permits issued for residential buildings since 2017 have been for “laneway homes” or accessory dwelling units. They are popular, with little resistance from other residents, according to Progress Ireland.
It is hard to see the householders of the Dublin suburbs and elsewhere embracing the concept with such enthusiasm.
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Given the ferocious opposition mounted to almost every development of scale in the suburbs, it’s unlikely Dubliners will view the idea of a shed in their neighbour’s garden being put up for rent with equanimity. Particularly when they realise the tenants will be looking to nick their parking space.
The good news is that it is unlikely to come to this. Nobody seems to want to be a small landlord in this Republic at the moment, with various surveys saying they are being driven out of the market by rent controls, excessive regulation and high taxes. It would be much more likely, then, that your neighbour is going to avail of the changes in the planning rules – if they proceed – to get their adult children out from under their feet and into a shed in the garden.
It will be a bit harder for the neighbours to get upset over that – and chances are you might even be in the same boat. Likewise, when the neighbours you have known for years move into a cabin in the garden so that one of their children can have a home for their family, you are going to have a hard time telling them that they shouldn’t.
Some of us will object, of course. And if recent experience has shown us anything, it is that planning permission – or a waiver for that matter – is no guarantee of anything if the objector has the deep pockets required to go to court, because of a concern over a species of rare bat that roosts in the tree above the site in question.
There are plenty of legitimate arguments that can be made against the plan to relax the rules. There will be unintended consequences for sure. But the risk would seem worth running given the depth and length of the housing shortage.
If it proceeds, there will be something of a test of social cohesion. Will we be Nimbys or Imbys?
