ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some dramatic changes in the border zone between the City of Derry and County Donegal since the mid-1990s: the border once had once been marked out with barricades but it is demarcated by back-gardens in new housing estates in Co. Donegal. The development of Derry's Donegal suburban and ex-urban extension has been almost wholly a market-driven process. The development of Derry's Donegal suburban and ex-urban extension has been almost wholly a market-driven process. There has been very little new council housing development in this part of Donegal. The chapter focuses on a pilot study of housing in the border counties, adding analysis of recent census and other housing data and introducing follow-up interviews with planning officials in summer 2003. The border region had long been characterised as a depressed area and the site of armed conflict and the Irish National Development Plan identified the border region as an area of high need.
