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Fri 04 Apr 2007Empty promise of dream homesThousands of Co Leitrim houses might be empty, but developers are ploughing ahead with residential schemes, fuelling fears that the county's villages are overdeveloped, writes Rosita BolandAccording to the latest census statistics, released at the end of March, Leitrim has the highest vacancy rate of housing units in the State, at 29.3 per cent. That's almost a third of the county's entire housing stock, the majority of it built since the rural-renewal tax-incentive scheme was introduced in 1999, with its cut-off date extended from 2002 to 2004. Counties Donegal and Kerry had the next emptiest housing stock, at 27 per cent and 24.8 per cent, respectively.