Property Investment

Last week we were talking about the surge in development activity before the closure of the development levy waiver; this week, we are confident of the Housing Minister being supported in his attempts to extend this to the end of 2024. The refund on water connection charges is also a welcome relief to the residential…

The Business Post ran an interesting analysis this week of home building across the country and the data reveals a notable surge in housebuilding activities. This surge has been attributed to developers trying to get in under the wire of the development levies waiver. This exemption, designed to ease some financial pressures associated with the…

The Irish Independent this week reported on a house-building company that has gone into receivership, carrying commentary from the director who said he no longer plans to develop new homes as the system has become too tied up in bureaucracy. This case reported this week is particularly relevant and it is important for a number of…

It has been another few weeks of mixed market commentary, kicking off with a welcome vote of confidence from international investors, as highlighted by Cushman & Wakefield’s global survey. Ireland continues to rank highly as a preferred location for investment within the EMEA region, driven by its positive demographic backdrop and robust economic growth outlook.…

A week is a long time in politics… particularly this week. Within days of Leo Varadkar handing over the ceremonial bowl of Shamrock to the US president, his successor will have to address concerns raised by the American Chambers of Commerce about the negative impact of Ireland’s ongoing housing crisis on Irish-America business relations. The…

Regular readers will be familiar (perhaps, too familiar?) with our regular critiques of Ireland’s planning regimes and our frequent calls for this regime to keep pace with changes across housing demand and delivery.  This week, writing in the Irish Examiner, the Housing Minister – arguably the person with ultimate responsibility to provide a functioning planning…

There is no part of Irish society that is not impacted by the housing crisis. The scale of the challenge has become something of a reason or excuse for inaction and poor decision-making at a policy level (when everything is a problem, nothing is a problem). Not only is this a problem for citizens, it is…

In a recent piece for the Financial Times, John Burn-Murdoch highlights the stark differences in housing development rates and strategies between Texas cities like Houston and major urban centres such as London, San Francisco, and New York. Burn-Murdoch’s analysis sheds light on the profound impact of urban planning policies on housing affordability and availability. While…

There’s nothing quite like a statistic to create a fall-out between government and media. Earlier this week The Irish Times ran an opinion piece with a headline likely to antagonise the industry:  ‘House building in Ireland is at a 15-year high. This is the truth, but it’s also Government spin’, suggesting that “although the Government certainly isn’t…

Earlier this week The Irish Times reported on a letter sent to the Housing Minister by Irish Institutional Property (IIP). In the letter, IIP points out the ‘severe risk’ posed by the new Planning and Development Bill to the 38,000 homes currently in the planning pipeline. The Planning and Development Bill 2023 is a huge…