RZLT parcels by council — hectares on the 2026 final maps for the four Dublin councils, and what the parcel counts hide

The 2026 final Residential Zoned Land Tax maps for the four Dublin councils cover 14,224 hectares in 87,751 parcels. Dublin City has the most land on its map, 4,514 hectares; Fingal 3,653; Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown 3,295; South Dublin 2,762. South Dublin also has 78,169 of the parcels, which is not because it has more sites but because it drew its map plot by plot. Read the hectares, and read them as the extent of the map rather than the tax base, because the maps are wider than what Revenue collects on.

The table

The tax, under Part 22A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, is 3% of market value a year on land that is zoned for residential use, serviced, and not excluded. The councils draw the maps; Revenue collects. A house and its garden liable to Local Property Tax are excluded, as is land in active business use that the zoning would not allow to continue, and the annual round of submissions and appeals takes land off the map between the draft and the final version. The RZLT guide sets out the windows; this one is about what the final maps show.

Why the parcel counts are not comparable

South Dublin published its map as individual plots — a parcel for each house-sized piece of a larger zoning — so its 78,169 parcels average a third of a hectare and only 80 of them exceed one hectare. The other three councils drew tracts: 1,348 of Dublin City's 4,058 parcels are over a hectare, as are 884 of Fingal's 3,254 and 859 of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown's 2,270. The largest single parcels are in Fingal, at 48 hectares, and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, at 36.

The hectares carry their own caveat. A council map can include polygons that overlap — a zoning tract and the plots within it — and land that a later determination excluded but the GIS layer still shows. Dublin City's 4,514 hectares is a large share of a county of about 11,700, and our reading is that it is the extent of the map as published, not the area Revenue will assess. The councils' own pages carry the determinations; the map is the starting point for a landowner's check, not the answer.

Where the large parcels are

The tracts over ten hectares are the strategic development zones and the large permissions that have not been built out, and they sit where the estate explainers look. Within 2.5 km of Clonburris and Kilcarbery in South Dublin the map holds 642 hectares in 18,079 of those small plots. Within 2 km of Cherrywood it holds 369 hectares in 354 parcels, and within 2.5 km of Hansfield 308 hectares in 377. The three points together are roughly a tenth of the Dublin maps' area, and each has a planning scheme or a large permission on most of it.

That is the tax working as intended: a permitted scheme is taxed until it is built and its houses become liable to LPT, with deferrals while an appeal or judicial review runs and during construction. The first-hand observation from the maps is how much of the mapped land at those three points already has a commencement notice on it, which the explainers count — the tax and the notice are the same signal from two directions.

What a landowner or buyer should do with the map

Search the address on our map's RZLT layer or the council's, and check whether the folio boundary and the parcel boundary agree. If your land is on the map and you think it should not be — not serviced, in business use, or a garden — the submission to the council must be made by 1 April on the draft map, and the appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála by 1 August. Miss both and the year's liability follows the final map. For a buyer of land, the vendor's Revenue registration, returns and any pending submission are pre-contract enquiries; for a buyer of a house, the exposure is a large garden or an adjoining plot on the same title.

The rezoning request introduced by the Finance Act 2024 — asking the council to zone the land out of residential use — and the deferrals for land in active farming change with each Finance Act. Revenue's guidance for the year is the only reliable statement.

Frequently asked questions

How much land is on the RZLT map in Dublin?

The 2026 final maps for the four Dublin councils show 14,224 hectares: Dublin City 4,514, Fingal 3,653, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown 3,295 and South Dublin 2,762. The figure is the extent of the published maps, which include some overlapping and later-excluded land.

Why does South Dublin have so many RZLT parcels?

Because it published its map plot by plot: 78,169 parcels averaging a third of a hectare, against tracts in the other three councils. Compare hectares, not parcel counts.

Is land with planning permission on the RZLT map?

Yes. Permission does not remove land from the map; the Act defers the tax while an application, appeal or judicial review is pending and during construction, on conditions, and the land leaves the map when the houses become liable to Local Property Tax.

When can I challenge the RZLT map?

A submission to the council by 1 April on the draft map, and an appeal of the council's determination to An Coimisiún Pleanála by 1 August. The final map for the following year is published by 31 January.

The RZLT guide covers who pays and the annual windows; the Clonburris explainer reads the largest mapped area parcel by parcel. See the parcels in the Explorer at Clonburris, on the map's RZLT layer, or on the South Dublin County Council place page.

Figures from the councils' 2026 final map layers on 12 September 2026 (live callouts refresh hourly); law checked 12 September 2026. Check with the council, Revenue or a tax adviser before relying on this.