Is a Móro mortgageable and insurable?

Yes. Because Móro is built on a certified system (NSAI Agrément, BER A2, fully insurable, PI-insured structural engineering), banks can lend against it and standard residential insurance applies.

How long does a Móro take?

About 12 weeks from deposit to install. The home is built offsite while your site is prepared in parallel.

What is included in the price?

The published price covers the manufactured, finished home: structure, envelope, roof, windows, doors, insulation, standard finish, delivery, installation and the full certification pack. The all-in price also includes foundations, standard service connections and site clearance. Only the site itself, off-mains services and any upgrades you choose are separate.

What foundations does a Móro need?

Most sites use a simple screw-pile or pad foundation, included as a standard allowance in the price. Poor ground is flagged in your proposal before you commit.

Can I pay for a Móro monthly?

Yes. Alongside paying in full, 3 and 5-year plans are available through our finance partner, typically a 30 percent deposit and the balance spread monthly.

What warranty and aftercare do I get?

Every Móro comes with a full certification pack, full structural insurance cover and twelve months of aftercare as standard.

How it works

We handle everything.
You just move in.

Q: Do I need planning permission for a Móro?

In most cases, no. Ireland's new back-garden exemption (Class 3A), which came into force on 27 July 2026, lets you place a self-contained home of 32 to 45 m² behind your own house without a planning application, provided you keep at least 25 m² of private garden and meet the conditions. Every Móro still meets the Building Regulations in full.

From first design to the day you get your keys. A calm, managed path. Site prep runs in parallel with the factory build, so a Móro lands in months, not years.

Four phases, and around 12 weeks from deposit to keys. Your home is built in our factory while your site is prepared in parallel, so nothing waits in a queue.

01

Week 0

Design & order

Configure your Móro online, lock in the model and finish, and pay your deposit. We survey the site and confirm your Class 3A exemption.

Model & finish locked in
Deposit paid, factory slot booked
Site survey & exemption confirmed

02

Weeks 1–4

Site prep, in parallel

While your home is built, your foundations, drainage and service connections go in. This is where the time saving comes from.

Boundary works & access
Water, power and drainage to site
Insulated (or pile) foundation

03

Weeks 4–10

Factory build

Your home is built offsite in our Longford factory, weatherproof throughout and finished to CNC tolerances before it ever leaves.

Steel frame & roof structure
Windows, doors, insulation, airtightness
Quality-checked before dispatch

04

Weeks 10–12

Delivery & keys

Craned onto your foundations, often in a single day. External finish, second fix, the full certification pack, and the keys.

Craned into place
External finish + second fix
Cert pack (BER, Agrément, insurance) + keys

Plus 12 months of aftercare as standard. We don't disappear once the keys are handed over.

Ready when you are.

Design your Móro and see the price in minutes, then join the waitlist. Orders open 1 September, and our customer care team is on hand any time before then.

Design your Móro → Book a call

FAQ

Questions, answered.

The things people ask us most. Can't find it here? Send us a note. We reply within a working day.

Planning & eligibility05

In most cases, no. Ireland's new back-garden exemption, which came into force on 27 July 2026, lets you place a self-contained home of 32 to 45 m² behind your own house without a planning application, as long as you keep at least 25 m² of private garden and meet the conditions. Every Móro still meets the Building Regulations in full. If your site does need planning, we won't lodge the application for you, but we'll flag it early and set out exactly what needs to be done.

Class 3A is the new exempted-development class introduced by the Planning and Development (Exempted Development) Regulations 2026. It allows one detached dwelling of 32 to 45 m² in your rear garden without planning permission until the end of 2030, provided it meets the Building Regulations, has a roof no higher than 4 m (pitched) or 3 m (flat), keeps at least 25 m² of private open space, sits at least 0.6 m off the boundaries, is occupied in conjunction with the main house and not sold separately, and isn't used for short-term letting. You give your local authority 14 days' notice before works start. We verify your eligibility at the site survey before you commit.

Skipping planning permission does not mean skipping the process. There are two separate steps, both before work starts. First, a planning notification to your local authority at least 14 days before works, confirming the site meets the Class 3A conditions. Second, a Building Control Commencement Notice, lodged with the Building Control Authority 14 to 28 days before works, which names a competent builder and an assigned certifier, a professional who inspects and certifies the build against the Building Regulations. When the home is finished, a Certificate of Compliance on Completion is signed by the builder and the assigned certifier and must be registered by the Building Control Authority before anyone can move in. Because every Móro is built on Framespace's certified system, we provide the design certification, the assigned certifier and the completion certificate as part of your build. A garden cabin comes with none of this.

It is for homeowners. You must own the main house and be using it as your sole or main residence on the day works start, so the exemption is not open to investors, companies, charities or institutional owners. You don't have to live in the garden home yourself, and it doesn't have to be the same family: a parent, a grown-up child or a long-term tenant can live there, and you can even move out of the main house afterwards and the exemption still holds, as long as you were resident when works began. The main house also can't already be split into separate units. We confirm all of this at the site survey.

Any existing sheds, garages or greenhouses over 13 m² count toward the 45 m² Class 3A limit alongside your new Móro. If they push you over the limit, they may need to be reduced or removed for the exemption to apply. We check all of this for you at the site survey, so there are no surprises later.

The home & build05

Yes. There are no minimum bedroom sizes set under the Building Regulations for these homes, but we design ours to the same standards used in new apartments: at least 7.1 m² for a single bedroom and 11.4 m² for a double. In the 45 m² layout the double bedroom is 11.6 m², with 23 m² of open-plan living, kitchen and dining and a full 4.7 m² level-access bathroom. They are real, liveable rooms, not token boxes.

Every Móro is BER A2 as standard, with airtightness of roughly 2 m³/hr/m², well ahead of current Building Regulations, and a heat pump fitted as standard. That means low, predictable running costs and a warm, quiet home year-round. A formal BER certificate is not legally required for a home under 50 m², but we build every Móro to A2 performance anyway. A typical uncertified garden room leaks two to three times more heat and will never reach that standard.

A Móro is a light-gauge steel (LGS) system, CNC-cut and assembled indoors in our Longford factory, then finished in render, timber, zinc or metal. It carries less embodied carbon than both timber frame and traditional blockwork, validated in work with the OPW, and the steel is fully recyclable at end of life. Like any new home, it is designed for a service life of at least 60 years. The building system holds Irish Agrément Certificate 22/0429.

Most sites use an insulated raft or a screw-pile foundation, included as a standard allowance in the price. For sloping, soft or sensitive ground we can use pile foundations instead. If your ground needs extra groundworks, we flag it in your proposal before you commit. No surprises.

Since 2016. Our 120,000 sq ft factory in Longford builds around five homes a week, roughly 250 a year, for developers and state bodies as well as private Móro customers. Móro is the consumer home built on that same certified, proven system.

Money, renting & value06

Because most of them aren't homes. A Móro is built in full to the Building Regulations, including fire safety, and independently certified: NSAI Agrément (Cert 22/0429), BER A2, and structural sign-off by PI-insured engineers. That is what makes it a genuine home you can mortgage, insure, count in your property's valuation as demised living space, and let long-term, all while staying planning-exempt under Class 3A. We guarantee that on every single unit. A cheaper garden cabin usually can't do any of those things. Turnkey garden rooms sell for roughly €1,700 to €2,500 per m², but a habitable, certified, A2-rated home built to the current regulations simply can't be delivered at that price. In short, you're comparing a shed to a home.

Yes. Because Móro is built on a certified system. NSAI Agrément, BER A2, fully insurable and signed off by PI-insured structural engineers. Banks can lend against it and it takes standard residential insurance. That's the difference between a certified home and a garden cabin.

Yes. Because a Móro is a certified, habitable home rather than a shed, it counts as demised living space when your property is valued, and a bank will lend against it. It adds to the home, it isn't a temporary structure in the garden. An uncertified cabin does not carry that weight with a valuer or a lender.

Yes. A Móro is a genuine, self-contained home. Use it for an ageing parent, a grown-up child, a studio, a home office, or long-term rental income. Under the rent-a-room scheme, up to €14,000 a year can come in tax-free while you keep living in the main house, though the tax treatment sits outside the planning rules and is worth confirming with your accountant. Short-term letting (for example Airbnb) is not permitted under the exemption. If you do let it, a Móro also meets the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations that apply to any rented home in Ireland, on fire safety, heating, ventilation, sanitary facilities and more. An uncertified cabin usually cannot. Try the rental calculator to see the payback.

The all-in price covers the manufactured, finished home (structure, envelope, roof, windows, doors, insulation, standard finish), delivery and installation, the full certification pack, plus foundations, standard service connections and site clearance. Only the site itself, off-mains services such as a septic tank, landscaping and any upgrades you choose sit outside it. Full breakdown on the Certification page.

Yes. Alongside paying in full, we offer 3- and 5-year plans through our finance partner. Typically a 30% deposit and the balance spread monthly. The configurator shows the monthly figure live as you design.

Ordering & delivery03

About 12 weeks from deposit to keys. Because your home is built offsite while your site is prepared in parallel, you skip the long on-site build. See the full roadmap on the How it works page.

Across Ireland. Every Móro is designed and manufactured in Longford by Framespace and delivered to your site. Vehicle access for a crane is the main requirement, and services tie into your existing house supply rather than a new connection. We confirm all of this at the site survey.

Every Móro comes with a full certification pack and full structural insurance cover, plus twelve months of dedicated aftercare as standard. A named customer success manager stays with you from order to well after handover.

Registered partners

Help us build Ireland's
lighter homes.

We're rolling Móro out nationally, and we can't do it from Longford alone. If you're a builder, groundworks or crane contractor, or a supplier who can help deliver Móro homes in your region. We want to hear from you.

Ways to partner with Móro.

A national rollout needs a trusted local network. We're building a register of vetted partners across four areas.

Registered installers

Local building contractors trained and certified to prepare sites and install Móro units to our spec.

Groundworks & foundations

Groundworks contractors for foundations, drainage and service connections, running in parallel with our build.

Delivery & craning

Haulage and mobile-crane operators to move and place modules safely on install day.

Supply chain

Manufacturers and suppliers of materials, finishes, kitchens, glazing and renewables we need to scale.

What we look for

Proven track record

Relevant experience, references and the right insurance and certifications.

Regional coverage

Capacity to serve a county or region reliably as demand builds.

Quality first

A finish and standard that matches a certified, mortgageable home.

Shared values

Honest, tidy, calm delivery. The way we like to work.

Apply to join the register.

Tell us who you are and how you'd like to work with us. We review every application and come back to you. Usually within a few working days. With the next steps and our partner pack.

Prefer email?

Partnerships team

Send your company profile and coverage area and we'll take it from there.

partners@moroliving.ie →

Hospitality

Móro for hospitality.

Thinking of setting up a hospitality business? We partner with you on a full white-glove service, from the first idea to the day your guests arrive. The same certified homes behind Móro, delivered as a scheme built entirely around your model.

A white-glove service for hospitality.

Whether it is a cluster of luxury lodges, a glamping site or a boutique retreat, we take the stress out of setting up a new hospitality business in Ireland. Most schemes start at three units, and we can deliver up to 20 to 30 units per scheme, designed, certified and installed around your model.

Holiday & short lets

Turnkey, certified units for holiday-home portfolios and self-catering sites.

Glamping & eco-retreats

Warm, A2-rated cabins that stay comfortable and rentable all year, not just in summer.

Lodge parks & resorts

Clusters of high-end lodges for a resort, holiday park or destination stay.

Tourism & wellness retreats

Calm, warm, year-round spaces for wellness, activity and experience-led stays.

A Framespace development

Drumhierny Woodland Hideaway.

Just outside Leitrim Village, Framespace, the certified manufacturer behind Móro, delivered 16 high-end holiday chalets set in the woods. Each is BER A rated and sits on a screw-pile foundation, so no concrete was needed on site. It is the same offsite system that builds every Móro, scaled into a working hospitality business.

16Holiday chalets

BER AEvery unit

Screw-pileNo concrete on site

LeitrimJust outside the village

The double-height glazed gable inside a Drumhierny chalet — The glazed gable

Open-plan living inside a Drumhierny chalet — Open-plan living

A bedroom inside a Drumhierny chalet — Bedroom

A bathroom inside a Drumhierny chalet — Bathroom

A private deck in the trees at Drumhierny — Private deck in the trees

A Drumhierny chalet set among autumn woodland — Set in the woods

!

A hospitality scheme falls outside the planning exemption.

The Class 3A garden exemption covers a single home behind your own house, not a hospitality development. A scheme like this needs full planning permission, and usually input on fire, access, services and the environment. That is exactly what the white-glove service is for. We handle the design and the certified build, and work alongside you and your planning team, so setting it up is far less daunting than going it alone.

The white-glove service

We take the stress off you.

01 · Scope

We start with your model, site and numbers, and shape a unit mix and layout around it.

02 · Design & planning

Planning-ready drawings and full certification, coordinated with your planning consultant.

03 · Manufacture

Phased factory delivery from Longford, built to the same certified standard as every Móro.

04 · Install & support

Delivery, install and handover across the whole scheme, with one point of contact throughout.

Tell us what you're building.

Send us a few details on your project and a Móro hospitality rep will be in touch to set up a consultation call. No obligation, just a proper conversation about what is possible.

Prefer email?

Hospitality team

Tell us the type of project, rough number of units and location, and we'll take it from there.

hospitality@moroliving.ie →

Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 2026

Móro ("Móro", "we", "us") is a home brand operated under Homely. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in line with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the rights you have.

Who we are

Móro is operated by Homely, Ireland. For any privacy question, or to exercise your rights, contact us at hello@moroliving.ie.

The data we collect

Details you give us. Your name, email, phone number, location and any information you submit through our contact, quote, factory-tour or partner-application forms.
Configuration data. The choices you make in the configurator, so we can prepare a quote or you can save and share your design.
Usage data. Basic, mostly anonymous information about how you use the site (pages viewed, device, approximate location), collected via cookies and similar technologies.

How we use your data

To respond to your enquiry, prepare a quote and manage your order.
To assess and manage partner and supplier applications.
To improve our website, products and service.
To send you updates about Móro where you have asked us to, or where we are otherwise permitted to.

Legal basis

We process your data on the basis of your consent, to take steps at your request before entering a contract, to perform a contract with you, and for our legitimate interests in running and improving our business. Always balanced against your rights.

Sharing your data

We do not sell your data. We share it only with trusted service providers who help us operate (for example our manufacturing partner Framespace, finance partners, hosting and email providers), and where we are required to by law. Any processors act on our instructions under appropriate agreements.

Retention

We keep your data only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected, or as required by law, after which it is securely deleted or anonymised.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, correct, delete or restrict the use of your personal data, to object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time. To exercise any of these, email hello@moroliving.ie. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.ie).

Cookies

We use essential cookies to run the site and, with your consent, analytics cookies to understand how it's used. You can control cookies through your browser settings.

Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be published here with the date it took effect.

Legal

Website Terms & Conditions

Last updated: July 2026

These terms govern your use of the Móro website. By using the site you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the site. Móro is operated under Homely, Ireland.

Use of the site

You may use this website for lawful, personal purposes. Browsing our homes, configuring a design and contacting us. You agree not to misuse the site, attempt to disrupt it, or use it in any way that breaches applicable law.

Prices and configurator estimates

All prices, specifications and figures shown on this site. Including any output from the configurator. Are indicative estimates for guidance only. They exclude site works, foundations beyond the standard allowance, service connections, professional fees and VAT unless stated. They do not constitute a quotation, an offer, or a contract. A binding price is provided only in a written proposal following a site assessment.

Product information

We work hard to keep information accurate, but images, finishes, dimensions and availability may change and are not guaranteed. Renderings are illustrative.

Intellectual property

All content on this site. Text, images, designs, logos and the Móro name. Is owned by or licensed to Homely and is protected by law. You may not copy, reproduce or reuse it without our written permission.

Third-party links

The site may link to other websites. We are not responsible for the content or practices of those sites.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Móro and Homely are not liable for any loss arising from your reliance on information on this site. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Ireland, and the Irish courts have exclusive jurisdiction.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Email hello@moroliving.ie.

Journal

The Móro journal.

Notes on small-footprint living, Irish planning, and building a home that lasts.

A warm cedar-clad Móro at dusk in an Irish back garden

Housing · New

Your garden could earn you €14,000 a year, tax free

Thousands of Irish homeowners are sitting on garden space that could legally house a person or family, in months not years. Under rent-a-room relief, that same space can earn up to €14,000 a year, tax free.

Read the full story →

Inside the Framespace factory in Longford, where every Móro is built and certified

Certification · 6 min read

Planning-exempt is not standards-exempt

The new exemption is a real opportunity. But it removes the planning application, not the building regulations. Framespace CEO Frank Madden on what to check before you buy.

Read →

Coffee and a notebook on a table, planning a garden home

Planning · 5 min read

The 45 m² rule: what Ireland's new garden-home exemption really means

The new 2026 regulations let you add a home in your back garden without planning permission. Here's what qualifies, and what still doesn't.

Read →

Inside a real Móro: a warm, lived-in living room and kitchen

Compliance · 4 min read

Garden room or real home? Why the difference is everything

They can look identical in a photo. But only one can be mortgaged, insured and counted in your home's value. Here's how to tell them apart.

Read →

A bright, airy Móro interior that feels bigger than its footprint

Design · 6 min read

Living lighter: how a small home can feel bigger than its footprint

Good light, honest materials and a calm layout do more than square metres ever could. Notes on designing small spaces that feel generous.

Read →

New writing from the Móro team, added regularly.

← The journal

Housing

Your garden could earn you €14,000 a year, tax free

Móro Journal · July 2026 · 4 min read

And play a small but real part in Ireland's housing crisis.

Ireland has a housing problem. You already know this. Families stuck on waiting lists. Young people living at home into their thirties, and their forties. Renters paying prices that make saving for a deposit feel like a joke. The planning system moves slowly, and large developments take years from conception to a front door opening.

There is something that could help right now. Not in five years. Not after a planning battle. Right now.

Thousands of Irish homeowners are sitting on garden space and land that could legally house another person or family. No single garden unit, an Accessory Dwelling Unit or ADU, is going to fix Irish housing. But if even a fraction of eligible homeowners acted on this, you are talking about real homes for real people in existing communities, delivered in months not years. That is not nothing. For the person or family who gets housed, it is everything.

And it works for you too

Under rent-a-room relief, income from renting a qualifying ADU on your property is exempt from income tax up to €14,000 a year. That is money generated from land you already own and are currently not using. No additional income, or even a pension supplement. No second property to buy. Just existing space, properly used, generating real value for both you and the occupant.

This is where people get caught out

The market for garden structures has moved fast, and almost none of it is built to the high standard required to rent a unit legally and claim the tax relief. The new Exempted Development regulations set a clear technical threshold for what qualifies as an ADU. Fire safety. Disability access. Structural and energy performance. A unit that does not meet these is not a rentable dwelling. It is a garden room. You cannot put a tenant in it. You cannot claim the €14,000 relief. It is very difficult to insure and almost impossible to take out a mortgage on.

Before signing anything with anyone, ask them directly: will this unit meet full building regulation compliance? Does it satisfy the Exempted Development technical standards? Can I legally rent it and claim rent-a-room relief? If the answers are vague, walk away.

What we built Móro to do

Every Móro home is manufactured by Framespace to full building regulation standards. Fire separation and detection designed in from the start. Level access and door widths that meet Part M requirements. A structure your local authority, your insurer, your tenant and your lender can all stand behind.

We started Móro because we believe Ireland's current homeowners have a practical, and a moral, near-term role to play in the country's housing situation. Not a silver bullet on its own. Just a real option that puts a roof over someone's head today, in your community, while making your property work harder for you.

Your garden is probably doing nothing. It could be doing quite a lot.

Design your Móro and see the price →

← The journal

Certification

Planning-exempt is not standards-exempt

Móro Journal · By Frank Madden, CEO of Framespace · 6 min read

The new garden-home exemption is a genuine opportunity for Irish homeowners. Just make sure the home you put in your garden is a real one.

Ireland has just introduced one of the most practical housing measures we have seen in years. The new exempted development regulations let you place a self-contained home of between 32 and 45 square metres in your back garden, without a planning application, whether it is for your own use or for someone else to live in. At Framespace we welcome it warmly. Used well, it could put thousands of high-quality homes into gardens across the country, in months rather than years.

But there is one point every homeowner needs to understand before they spend a cent, and it is easy to miss in the excitement.

Inside the Framespace factory in Longford — Every Móro is built and certified in the Framespace factory in Longford, on the same system used for apartments and houses.

No planning permission does not mean no rules

The exemption removes the planning application. It does not remove the building regulations. A home meant to be lived in all year round still has to comply, in full, with the Building Regulations and the Building Control Regulations that apply to any other new home in Ireland. Structural safety, fire safety, ventilation, insulation, energy performance, accessibility. All of it.

In fact the two are linked. If a garden dwelling does not meet the building regulations, it may not qualify for the planning exemption at all. So a cheap unit that skips the standards is not just a lower-quality home. It may not be a legal one.

Why NSAI certification is the thing to look for

This is where certification by the National Standards Authority of Ireland matters, and matters greatly. There is a common source of confusion here worth clearing up. You will often see products described as CE marked. CE marking covers individual building products. It does not cover a whole building system, and it does not tell you how all those components behave together as a finished structure.

NSAI certification does exactly that. For modern methods of construction, which includes offsite and modular homes like ours, the NSAI provides the technical evaluation, quality testing and certification that proves a complete system is safe and compliant. It looks at how the building performs as a whole in real Irish conditions: adverse weather, noise, cold, heat and the range of sites a home might sit on. The new exemption does not change any of that. The NSAI's role is as important as ever.

This is not just our opinion. The Government's own information note on these homes says the same thing in plain terms: modern methods of construction, which includes modular, should be certified by NSAI Agrément. That same note is clear that a garden home still needs a Building Control commencement notice and an assigned certifier before work starts, and a Certificate of Compliance on Completion that has to be registered before anyone can move in. It is the standard we build to as a matter of course.

What happens if you get this wrong

An uncertified unit dropped into a back garden is unlikely to be financeable. It is unlikely to be insurable for use as a home. And where cover is offered, a claim can be refused later if the insurer finds the unit never complied in the first place. That is a hard lesson to learn after you have handed over a large sum of money.

Your checklist before you buy

Before you sign anything with any supplier, make sure you can tick off every one of these:

✓The home genuinely qualifies for the exemption and satisfies every condition.
✓It is designed and made to comply in full with the building regulations: accessibility, structural safety, fire safety, ventilation, insulation and energy performance.
✓All building control and certification requirements are met.
✓The maker provides structural engineering and design certification, with professional indemnity cover behind it.
✓You know the Building Energy Rating (BER) of the finished home.
✓Electrical and plumbing work is completed and certified by qualified contractors.
✓It can be connected safely to water, wastewater and electricity.
✓The maker can show a full set of engineering, design and certification documents proving it is fit for permanent living.
✓You get warranties comparable to standard house-building, covering latent and other defects.
✓The home is insurable specifically for residential use.

If a supplier is vague on any of these, treat that as your answer, and walk away.

Why we can say all this with a straight face

Framespace is not new to this. For more than ten years we have designed, manufactured and installed apartments, houses and duplexes for some of the country's leading developers and for State-funded bodies, all to exacting standards, from our facility in Longford. Delivering real homes offsite is in our DNA.

Our NSAI certification was hard-earned. The NSAI evaluated our structures, their airtightness and ventilation, their acoustic and thermal performance, audited our factory and our processes, and checked how we install on site. We are also a Homebond registered contractor, one of very few modular builders in Ireland that is. Móro is the garden home built on that same certified system.

A window worth using well

This exemption is time-limited and is set to expire at the end of 2030. My hope is that over the next few years we see strong demand met by genuinely high-quality supply, alongside real regulatory oversight of everyone making these homes. I would be glad to see other manufacturers achieve NSAI certification too, so that together we can deliver compliant garden homes at the scale Ireland needs.

Good regulation protects everyone. It protects homeowners making a significant investment. It protects the people who will live in these homes. And it protects the responsible manufacturers who have done the work to meet Ireland's standards. Every habitable home, including a home in a garden, deserves nothing less.

Frank Madden is the founder and CEO of Framespace, the certified manufacturer behind Móro.

See how every Móro is certified →

← The journal

Planning

The 45 m² rule

Móro Journal · July 2026 · 6 min read

For the first time, Irish homeowners can add a full second home to their back garden without a planning application. Here is exactly what the new 2026 rules allow, and where the limits sit.

Until now, anything you placed in your garden without planning permission was capped at 25 square metres and could not be used as living accommodation. It was a shed, an office or a store, and nothing more. The Planning and Development (Exempted Development) Regulations 2026, which came into force on 27 July 2026, introduce a new category, Class 3A, that changes the picture completely. A self-contained house of up to 45 square metres can be placed in the rear garden of an existing home with no planning application at all.

It is one of the fastest housing levers the State has, arriving at a time when Ireland needs to build in the region of 35,000 homes a year. Instead of waiting on a planning system under strain, a homeowner can add a compliant home in a matter of months.

The numbers that define it

The exemption is precise. The home must be between 32 and 45 square metres of floor area. A pitched, tiled or slated roof can rise to 4 metres, while any other roof is capped at 3 metres. You have to retain at least 25 square metres of private open space in the garden, and the structure must sit at least 0.6 metres back from any boundary or party wall, with any windows at least 0.6 metres from the boundary they face.

Before work starts, you notify your local Planning Authority at least 14 days in advance, stating the location and the Eircode and confirming that the site meets the conditions. Each authority keeps a register of these notifications and reports the numbers to the Minister every year.

Compliance is not optional

The word "exempt" refers to planning permission only. The full Building Regulations still apply, including Part B for fire safety, along with the Building Control Regulations. The home cannot be temporary in nature, so a caravan or mobile unit does not qualify. In practice that means a properly engineered, certified building, which is exactly where most garden cabins fall down.

What it is, and is not

Class 3A adds a home to your property, it does not split it in two. You keep living in the main house, the unit shares its services, and it cannot be sold or subdivided separately. You can let it long-term on the private market. Depending on your circumstances, that income may qualify for Rent a Room relief, up to €14,000 a year tax free while you live in the main house, though the tax position sits outside the planning rules and is always worth confirming with your accountant. Short-term letting is not permitted, and there is no new entrance onto the road.

A few situations fall outside Class 3A. It is only open to owner-occupiers: you have to own the main house and be living in it as your sole or main residence on the day works begin, so it is not available to investors, companies, charities or institutional owners. It does not apply if the main house has already been divided into separate units. You cannot form a new entrance onto the road, and the garden home shares the existing water and drainage rather than taking its own connection, so where a house is on a septic tank that tank has to have spare capacity. And if a site would need an environmental assessment, or an old planning condition restricts further building on it, the exemption switches off and normal permission is needed. These are exactly the checks we run at the site survey, before you commit.

One point worth knowing, and one that housing groups such as Threshold have raised publicly, is that as the rules stand a person renting one of these garden homes is treated as a licensee rather than a Residential Tenancies Board tenant. If you do let one, our view is simple: build it properly and treat the person living in it like a tenant, because a real, certified home deserves nothing less.

The window runs to the end of 2030: a home completed by 31 December 2030 keeps the exemption after that date. For homeowners with a suitable garden, it is a genuinely new option, and it is the exact envelope a certified Móro is designed to fit.

← The journal

Compliance

Garden room or real home?

Móro Journal · July 2026 · 6 min read

In a photo, a garden room and a certified home can look identical. On paper, and in your bank's eyes, they are worlds apart.

The garden-building market is crowded with pods, cabins and rooms that photograph beautifully. The difference shows up the moment you try to do something real with the space: use it as a genuine home, borrow against the house, insure it properly, or sell up and expect the building to count. Most of these products are not built to the Building Regulations, are not independently certified, and do not register as habitable living space.

The five questions worth asking

Before buying anything for the garden, ask whether it is certified to a recognised standard. A Móro carries ISO 9001 quality management (accredited through IQNet and the NSAI), EN 1090 conformity for its structural steel, and Irish Agrément Board Certificate No. 22/0429 for the building system, all audited by the NSAI every year. Ask whether it hits BER A2, with airtightness of around 2 cubic metres per hour per square metre, well ahead of current regulations. Ask whether it is fully insurable, so a bank will actually lend against it. Ask whether the structural design is signed off by PI-insured engineers. And ask whether it will count in your property's valuation. For a typical flat-pack cabin, the honest answer to most of those is no.

The numbers behind the gap

The clearest place to see the difference is heat. A typical garden room loses heat at a U-value of around 0.35 to 0.45. The legal maximum for a dwelling is 0.18, and a genuinely compliant small home needs walls closer to 0.14 and a floor around 0.10. Put simply, most garden rooms leak two to three times more heat than a home is allowed to, which is why they cannot pass as habitable space, cost a fortune to run, and will never carry a BER A2 rating.

Why certified costs more, and why it is worth it

The gap is measurable in euro too. Turnkey garden rooms sell for roughly 1,700 to 2,500 euro per square metre, while a habitable, compliant unit costs closer to 3,000 to 3,500 euro and up, which puts a 40 square metre compliant home somewhere around 120,000 to 140,000 euro. A fully certified, A2-rated, fully insurable home built to the current regulations simply cannot be delivered at the prices some uncertified suppliers advertise. Móro's own pricing sits in line with Construction Industry Federation standard build costs, and the manufactured home is roughly 65 to 75 percent of the total keys-in-the-door figure once site works, connections and fees are added. Móro's own all-in prices run from 99,000 euro for the studio to 149,000 euro for the one-bed-with-office.

People in the trade expect the new rules to split the market in two. The builder Joe Savage has warned of a coming divide between a sub-standard shed at around 60,000 euro and a properly compliant home at around 130,000, with buyers who go cheap finding out too late that they cannot rent, insure, mortgage or even legally live in what they bought. Móro is built for the right side of that line.

What that buys is an asset rather than an ornament. It holds its value the way a stick-built house does, insures under a standard residential policy, has an engineered design life comparable to a conventional home, and stands up to Irish weather for decades. That is the real line between something in the garden and a home you own.

← The journal

Design

Living lighter

Móro Journal · July 2026 · 5 min read

A small home does not have to feel small. Light, proportion and honest materials do far more than square metres ever could.

People often worry that a compact home will feel cramped. In practice, the spaces that feel most generous are rarely the largest. A Móro One fits a full open-plan living area, kitchen, bathroom and double bedroom into 45 square metres, and it reads as a home rather than a box because of how it is designed, not how big it is.

Light does the heavy lifting

Ceilings sit at around 2.5 metres and each module is 3.485 metres wide, which keeps the main living space open and calm. Large, well-placed windows and the option of full-height glazed doors pull the garden inside, so even the 25 square metre Mini feels like a retreat. A BER A2 rating and airtightness of roughly 2 cubic metres per hour per square metre keep the home warm and quiet, with running costs a fraction of an older build.

Less, but better

Built-in storage, an integrated utility with laundry, and a single considered material palette all buy back room without adding a metre. Móro works from seven warm tones, from sand and stone to clay, timber, moss and charcoal, and offers six exterior finishes, so the same quiet home can sit comfortably in a rural townland or a city garden.

Because every home is built offsite in a controlled factory in Longford, the finish is precise and the tolerances are tight. Whether it becomes a home office, a gym, a studio, a guest room, independent space for a parent or a home of its own, living lighter is not about doing without. It is about keeping what matters and letting the rest go.

Live lighter.

Built like a house, because it is one.

This is not a garden room.It's a home.

Fully planning-exempt

Building-compliant

Mortgageable & insurable

Rentable

Adds to your valuation

A real home. In your own garden. In months, not years.

Not a cabin company.A modern living solution.

Three homes, one certified system.

A calm path, from first click to first morning.

Not a cabin company.A modern living solution.

Four letters. Four promises.

Made properly.

Owned, for good.

Real homes.

Open and human.

Why we exist.

Made by Framespace, in Longford.

Móro is part of the Homely family.

Shared mission

One community

Irish through and through

Be first in line.

Three homes, one certified system.

A self-contained studio.

A complete one-bedroom home.

One bed, plus a home office.

The 45 m² layout, to the millimetre.

A real home, room by room.

45 m², one bedroom or two.

One home, many faces.

Built to be looked at closely.

Made in Ireland, properly.

Structure, certified

Fire & acoustic

Fabric & comfort

ISO 9001 & Agrément

Made offsite

Scale to deliver

Engineered. Certified.Insurable.

A serious manufacturing base.Not a shed.

A garden room can't dowhat a Móro does.

Independently certified, every year.

An asset, not an ornament.

Not all garden buildingsare equal.

What's in the price.What's not.

The home, on its foundations, connected.

The site, and the extras you choose.

From deposit to installin 12 weeks.

In line with CIF.Not the cheapest.

One all-in figure, not a moving target

Built to a standard you can stand behind.

Design your Móro.

One certified home. Five ways to wear it.

Will it pay for itself?

Join the waitlist.

We handle everything.You just move in.

Design & order

Site prep, in parallel

Factory build

Delivery & keys

Ready when you are.

Questions, answered.

Help us build Ireland'slighter homes.

Ways to partner with Móro.

Registered installers

Groundworks & foundations

Delivery & craning

Supply chain

Proven track record

Regional coverage

Quality first

Shared values

Apply to join the register.

Móro for hospitality.

A white-glove service for hospitality.

Holiday & short lets

Glamping & eco-retreats

This is not a garden room.
It's a home.

Not a cabin company.
A modern living solution.

Not a cabin company.
A modern living solution.

Engineered. Certified.
Insurable.

A serious manufacturing base.
Not a shed.

A garden room can't do
what a Móro does.

Not all garden buildings
are equal.

What's in the price.
What's not.

From deposit to install
in 12 weeks.

In line with CIF.
Not the cheapest.

We handle everything.
You just move in.

Help us build Ireland's
lighter homes.