A home to call your own. For many, it is the ultimate goal, the life dream. Making that dream a reality however, is not without its challenges. Whether it’s raising the deposit, securing a mortgage or finding the right one for you, the headache of finding a home is a rite of passage for many – although one that young people are finding harder to attain.

For many farming families and those living in rural areas, it starts with the land. You’ll find a copy of the Agricultural Land Report 2024 free within this week’s paper. This 72-page report is one of the most comprehensive pieces published by the Irish Farmers Journal each year, in which we collate land prices in every county, through consultation with auctioneers. Well done to Paul Mooney who has spent months collating and analysing the data.

The headline figure is that land prices rose by 5% in 2024, now sitting at a national average price of €12,515/ac. While the Land Report is always a piece of juicy reading for farmers eager to know what their farm is worth, it’s also very relevant to those who wish to build a home in rural Ireland, especially given our nation’s housing crisis.

Unfortunately, planning permission has become increasingly difficult to obtain in recent years. As a result, young people are looking at their family’s land with dreams of a home of their own. However, for many there will be no foundations laid in the foreseeable future.

This is the reality for one lady, featured on page 22 of the Land Report. Preferring to remain anonymous, she told Jacqueline Hogge that she obtained planning permission to build a modest home on her family’s farm in Connemara in 2006.

However, her circumstances changed and she couldn’t go ahead with the build. In 2021, she reapplied with a new planning application but met hurdle after hurdle. Now, in 2025, she still has not obtained planning, having spent nearly €15,000 on the process.

This planning situation is impacting land prices. Road frontage is no longer the sexy term it was once was – it means very little these days with planning so hard to come by. Instead, it’s the old derelict cottage that is driving up prices. Not only is planning easier to obtain, there is also a potential €50,000 on the table in the form of the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant.

Paul Mooney outlines that an old house that five years ago added €40,000 to the value of land, can now increase it by as much as €100,000, depending on the local county council.

In light of all this, we are launching the Agricultural Land Report 2024 this year in conjunction an eight-week series called, ‘Building a home in rural Ireland’.

The series led by Jacqueline Hogge will look at rural planning guides, pre-planning meetings and grants, as well as practical areas to consider in terms of securing a mortgage for your build, the design and heating systems. Planning and building a home is never an easy process but we hope our research and advice will help readers navigate the journey.