CityLiving A policy of locals-only in Wicklow goes all the way to the top, says Edel Morgan

It's heart warming to see Wicklow County Council looking after its millionaires. Not wanting them to be pushed out of the local property market by rich interlopers, they have slapped a "locals only" restriction on Racefield in Newcastle - a scheme of 12 luxury €930,000-€960,000 detached houses that went on sale last week.

Apart from a healthy bank balance, eligibility to this elite enclave involves proving you either work full-time in the county or have been resident there for at least a year.

While Sherry FitzGerald New Homes says there has been plenty of local demand for the houses at Racefield, one wonders if Wicklow County Council is discriminating against the rest of the country's millionaires? Is the "race" in Racefield referring to "well-off Wicklow families". Will the next step be a notice at the gates of the development warning "Dubs and other outsiders prohibited"?

An estate agent confirmed to City Living that there is a scarcity of large detached houses in Wicklow in the €800,000-plus price bracket. Wicklow County Council says the clause is there to "look after local people" but do people of considerable financial means really need that kind of protection?

The usual justification for the locals-only clause is that it complies with strategic planning guidelines for the greater Dublin area adopted in 2001. However, appeals against this condition to An Bord Pleanála are often successful. It does not apply to larger towns - like Bray, Greystones and Arklow - but to villages, like Baltinglass and Ashford, hinterlands and rural areas. Developments with the restriction have included Woodleigh in Blessington and Woodstock in Kilcoole, both aimed at first-time buyers. Buyers in these schemes must get an indemnity from their solicitor vouching they've lived in the area for more than a year or are working full-time. However, following the initial sale, houses can then be sold or rented on the open market without any restrictions.

While some developments allow people from all over the county to purchase, others are restricted to those living within 8 kms. The criteria for those looking to build one-off housing in rural parts of the county is particularly strict. Applicants must be permanent native residents, with those returning to an area from abroad frequently being turned away.

A Wicklow County Council spokesperson says "quite a bit of checking" is done, to ensure that imposters don't infiltrate new developments. As well as a statement from their solicitor, buyers may also be asked to produce utility bills.

One-off rural housing applicants are asked to show letters from schools to confirm attendance, passports, and birth and baptism certificates.

Anyone who manages to hoodwink the council, however, is home and dry once they actually sign for a property. According to Wicklow County Council's spokesperson, there is little it can do if they discover a deception after the fact. "There is very strict criteria but there are loopholes."

While the aim of the clause is to strike a balance between sustainable communities and overdevelopment and give natives a chance to buy in their locality may be laudable, is it constitutional? In effect, it discriminates against house-buyers on the grounds of where they currently or previously have lived? A solicitor I contacted said that, while nobody has tried to challenge these restrictions on constitutional grounds, in her view "if they did so, they could well be successful".

Wicklow is not the only local authority to try to impose such conditions. Kildare County Council was embroiled in controversy when several prospective buyers at a development at Narraghmore near Kilcullen pulled out because of protracted indecision by the local authority over of who qualified to buy them.

In Galway's Gaeltacht, purchasers of apartments and houses reserved for Irish speakers must pass an oral Irish exam of a similar standard to the Leaving Certificate. The oral interview was introduced following a serious of landmark rulings by An Bord Pleanála on Gaeltacht developments.

These stipulated that a percentage of units in a development - based on census figures on daily Irish use - must be reserved for Irish speakers. Kerry County Council, also planning to impose restrictions on buyers in its Gaeltacht areas, says it is in the process of determining how it will determine a buyer's fluency in the language.

There have been rumblings in Wicklow and in Gaeltacht areas that developers are planning to mount legal challenges to these clauses, saying they are reluctant to build developments that have a limited target market. Some believe the council's strategy will backfire, driving development into neighbouring counties. Others, however, reject the restriction as a form of Apartheid, saying it is a genuine effort to deal with over development in sensitive areas. There are merits to all of these arguments when applied in the right circumstances.

It is doubtful, however, the strategic planning guidelines for the greater Dublin area were ever devised to protect the Wicklow aristocracy from a competitive property market.