Over 2,500 housing units in pipeline for Athlone

Over 2,500 housing units are at various stage of the planning process in the Athlone area from 2019 to date.

The figures emerged in a comprehensive overview of housing developments in the Athlone area in the period 2019-2026.

They were provided by Westmeath County Council to Cllr Frankie Keena following a request at a recent meeting of Athlone-Moate Municipal District.

The statistics do not include housing activity in the Roscommon County Council area of Athlone.

The overview shows that seven of 27 proposed housing developments have been completed in Athlone since 2019.

Four of the housing developments completed construction in 2023, two were completed in 2025, the earliest housing development completing construction in 2021.

And in terms of individual housing units, some 449 have been built.

The report includes details of planning permissions granted, construction commencement dates, completed housing developments and schemes yet to commence.

Of the 449 units which have been completed, 386 are houses with the remaining 63 being apartments.

Housing developments have been completed at Baylough and Bogganfin (Wincove Land Ltd), The Orchard (Salamisso Developments), Lower Road (Ardent Lakeside Property), Baylough (CRF Construction), Clonbrusk (Yellow Island Trading Company), Cornamaddy (Parana Properties) and Cornamagh/Clonbrusk/Coosan (Castlestar Athlone Ltd) have seen 281 properties built in a mixture of houses and apartments.

Cllr Keena said the in-depth report provided a "very useful picture of the substantial housing programme underway in Athlone".

He said that the report stipulated that the figures are based on "desk-based survey" using "commencement notices received" and that "not all the information has been verified on site".

"Up to 449 housing units have already been completed, while the overall pipeline contains 2,568 units across houses and apartments at various stages of development. If these developments progress to full completion over the coming four to five years, they will make a significant contribution to housing supply in Athlone," Cllr Keena said.

The councillor said that the local authority's planning department continues to receive planning applications for a wide range of residential schemes for Athlone, and that the demand for housing in the Athlone area "continues to grow rapidly as the population increases".

"This housing report demonstrates the scale of housing opportunity for Athlone, but it also underlines the importance of ensuring that housing, transport, infrastructure, schools, community and sporting facilities are planned together as the town continues to expand.

He called for the adoption of the Athlone Joint Urban Settlement Strategy "as soon as possible". This, the councillor added, will "provide greater certainty" in relation to the future zoning of residential land and "allow for the proper planning" of Athlone's future development growth.