The Land Development Agency has identified potential sites for housing in Athlone.
The finding is contained in a new report from the organisations which states at least 60 thousand new homes could be built on land already owned by the state across the state.
It also suggests Athlone is one five regional centres which is recommended for development along with Sligo, Letterkenny, Dundalk and Drogheda.
Tom Phillips, associate professor of planning at UCD, says some state-owned lands aren't suitable for homes to be built on:
''They need to work out what land is available to be redeveloped because if you look at the map on the website there are large swades of Donegal for example but they're upland so they are not suitable for housing so what they are trying to do is to look at the map of Ireland and see what the various state bodies own and then sidtill down from that which of those pieces of land can be developed for housing.''
