By Chris Ashmore
A surge in house building is expected in Letterkenny over the next few years as planning queries and applications are now at their highest since 2021.
In his report to the January meeting of Donegal County Council, Chief Executive, John McLaughlin, stated that recent trends show there has been an increase in the number of applications for multi-unit developments.
“While multi-unit applications have been received across the county, the large scale residential developments (100 units and over) have occurred in Letterkenny and Donegal Town,” he said.
And he added that “between formal pre-planning enquiries and Large Scale Residential Development Planning applications received by the Planning Service, there is a potential supply of approximately 1,000 units in Letterkenny alone with a further 207 units proposed in Donegal Town.
He also described as “significant” the number of one-off housing unit applications, disclosing that planning approval was given to 3,348 individual homes between 2021 and 2024 (the latest figures available), with an average completion rate of 63.9 per cent.
Last year Donegal County Council received 2,519 planning applications, up from 2,451 in 2024.
Aside from a rise in residential property applications, Mr McLaughlin noted that in the past year there were 382 planning applications for commercial and other non-residential developments, which equated to 519 buildings.
He also gave an update on Defective Concrete Block related planning applications.
In 2025, the Council’s planning service assessed and managed 216 applications (8.5 per cent of all planning applications) associated with the ongoing situation relating to defective concrete blocks. This brought the total number since 2020 to 652.
Meanwhile, the e-planning system – which permits applications to be made online – has been a considerable success, with 95 per cent of all applications being submitted and assessed using ePlanning.
