Regulations designed to stem the incidence of "bungalow blitz" in the North have seen a 90 per cent drop in succesful planning applications for one-off rural housing since being introduced last year.
The regulation known as Planning Policy Statement 14 (PPS 14) has cut the number of sucessful applications for single dwellings in the countryside from 5, 655 at the same time last year to about 500 this year.
The measure amounts to a blanket ban on new houses in the countryside, with only a handful of exceptions.
PPS14 was introduced in March 2006, and since then there have been 407 replacement dwellings and less then 100 in other categories like farm buildings.
This compared to 5,655 the year before the ministerial order was brought in.
MLA Patsy McGlone, a long-standing opponent to the measure who obtained the latest figures, claimed people who wanted to live where they were brought up "are being denied that chance because of PPS14".
However, Green Party MLA Brian Wilson said most new homeowners did not use local schools or other facilities and contributed little to the rural community.
"The vast majority of these buildings are speculative buildings. They are built on roadsides, totally destroying the countryside," he said.
"They require septic tanks, water supplies, and the land is cut up to provide that. "Most of the people buying them are nothing to do with the countryside [but are] people moving out from the towns."