If farmers have old houses on their farm and, even if they are now being used to house cattle, planning permission will still be granted, Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers CEO Pat Davitt has said.

Davitt was speaking in front of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture on Wednesday 17 May on revitalising derelict and vacant homes on farmland.

"Now, with people doing up these houses, even if there has been cattle in them, if there is any part of a house there, you will get planning again," he said.

Farm organisations, he argued, could help with advising farmers - if they are now living in a new property - that they can sell their old houses or old homestead.

Challenges

Rights of way, depending on where the house is located in the farmyard, is the first challenge farmers face selling these type of properties, Davitt said.

"A right of way to that house is the first thing. It's one of the main bogeys from the bank's point of view if they're going to finance these properties. If you want to get at them, you have to have a roadway. Banks don't like these shared roadways," he said.

The second challenge, Davitt said, is the access to the farm and the farm buildings, whether the house is close to them or far away from them.

Particular clients who are aware of what goes on in the countryside need to be the people who are buying these properties, he said.

"You don't want to bring people to these properties who wake up on a Saturday morning after working in Dublin or wherever to find someone is putting slurry next to their fence and they say they shouldn't have bought this property.

Similar stock

"The clientele need to be of similar stock or of farming stock," he said.

Capital gains is the third issue that faces farmers here, as many of these farms may have been handed down to them when they were very young.

"These houses could have been valued at very little at the time. The capital gains problems here are going to be much more than they are with lots of other people.

"If that was sorted out, I think the farming organisations could play a huge role in trying to make these people see that it is the best thing to sell these houses or do it up and maybe house some of their older people there," he said.