Rural Ireland has Least Mortgages
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.