Terrace houses would only really be the dominant form in Victorian areas (or older) of cities here which is definitely not the dominant form of housing.
Our housing stock's an absolute environmental disgrace by EU standards, just looking at a report.
43% of homes are detached (i.e. stand alone) and 73% of those are in rural/semi-rural settings (we like our space).
Average Irish dwelling emits 47% more CO2 than an average UK dwelling and 92% higher than the average for the EU-15 and 104% more than the EU-27!
50% of Irish homes were built after 1979 (two huge housing booms). We had absolutely no environmental regulations for homes pre 1979. So, you could install single glazing and minimal insulation and just burn more gas/oil etc to heat it.
Modern regulations are pretty tight on new build, almost approaching passive house standards.
The average Irish home is 104 m2 (1120 sq ft) (UK is 76m2)
Average US home varies enormously depending on the State, the cities and Eastern states, California etc bring the sizes way down on average (as they're representative of much more of the population than the sprawling homes of places like Utah)
Average (according to real estate sales) 1,761 sq ft.
Utah 2305 sq ft
Texas 2031 sq ft
MA - 1744 sq ft
California 1625 sqft
Washington DC : 1,000 sq ft
Also, bear in mind we design buildings to cope with expected serious winter temperatures of only -3ºC (26.6ºF) so the construction would be quite different to most of continental Europe and most of the continental US too. It's just not that cold. You really spend most of your time in Ireland designing against water ingress, dampness and condensation issues. For example, wood finishes here are a complete disaster no matter how good the treatments are they invariably rot or get broken up by lichens and moss.
Have a browse around
www.daft.ie (real estate site) if you want to get a sense of what Irish housing stock's like.
Link below is for Cork City set at €200,000 which is roughly what the average is coming out for house prices there $238,690 ... I'd say add 100,000 if you want to get into decent size family home territory though as it'll be dragged down by very small places / pokey student let investment apartments etc etc
There have been various attempts to get us to 'downsize' for environmental reasons and live in denser cities, but it's not what people vote for here and they generally have a total fixation on the house in the countryside ideal with an acre of land around it. Not entirely unlike attitudes you'd tend to get in the US.
Also, if you tell someone you live in an apartment immediately means it's something 'temporary' that one does when one's moving onto a 'proper house' and getting your foot on the property ladder.
Or, you're very young, single, divorced, etc etc.
There's a *huge* hang up about apartment dwelling in the Irish psyche. Immediately seems to bring up mental images of some kind of horrific council 'flats' or some kind of cat lady type characters. Total snobbery I know, but that's what people seem to think.
Irish banks won't even lend you a mortgage for a small apartment anymore as they consider them a high risk investment with less resale options.[this post was last edited: 1/5/2015-18:06]
http://www.daft.ie/cork-city/houses-for-sale/?s[mnp]=200000