2021 sees lowest approval of ODZ dwellings in five years

In 2021 the Planning Authority approved 107 new dwellings outside development zones (ODZ), the lowest number since 2016.

The number of new ODZ dwellings represented 1.4% of the 7,578 new dwellings approved in 2021, down 2.8% in the previous year.

The approval of dwellings in the ODZ is limited to the redevelopment and extensions of existing farmhouses or to developments in rural hamlets and is regulated by the rural policy which also permits the reconstruction of countryside ruins.

A review of the rural policy started in October 2019 is still awaiting approval. A draft policy with stricter rules was issued for public consultation in June 2020. The PA is still bound to issue a second draft for public consultation before the stricter policy is given final approval.   

But the decline in ODZ permits suggests that the new board chaired by Martin Camilleri has been stricter in its interpretation of the existing policy.

The highest number of ODZ dwellings in the last decade was approved in 2016 when 283 dwellings were approved outside development zones, just two years after the rural policy came into place.

In an indication that the policy facilitated more construction outside the building zones (ODZ), only 810 dwellings were approved between 2008 and 2014, compared to 1,267 in the period between 2015 and 2021.

The number of ODZ dwellings had increased from 139 in 2018 to 214 in 2019 and remained stable at 216 in 2020. This represented 3.8% of all dwellings approved in that particular year.  Previously the largest number of ODZ dwellings was approved in 2005 when 285 ODZ dwellings were approved.

ODZ dwellings approved in past 10 years