House Owners with No Mortgage.
People living in Rural areas of Ireland are more likely to have no mortgage outstanding on their home. In the 2006 census 46.48% of rural dwellers owned their home and had no mortgage outstanding on it.
Of the towns with a population over 1500 – it was Kilrush in County Clare that had more mortgage free residents. In Kilrush 41.7% of housing units are owned outright with no mortgage outstanding according to census returns.
Other towns with a high percentage of mortgage free owners are:
Kanturk , Castlerea, Ballyshannon, Swinford, Clones, Castleisland, Castlecomer-Donaguile. All these towns had between 40% and 41% of the homes fully paid for.
Interestingly – 4 of these towns also appear in the top six towns with the highest percentage of over 65s. Castlerea, Kanturk, Kilrush and Swinford. These towns have rates ranging from 18% to 23% of over 65 year olds
Rural Ireland though appears to have younger home owners with no mortgage debts – only 12.24% of rural dwellers are over 65 . This might be accounted for by the higher proportion of self builds in the countryside – usually on land owned by the family with lower costs.