Ireland’s Latest Housing Tool and Why it Matters

You might have read over the past few days about the high-profile launch of the ‘Dublin Housing Observatory Mapping Viewer‘, that catchy title just rolls off the tongue!

So what exactly is it?

This new mapping tool will provide insights in the breakdown of housing in Dublin. It provides detailed information on every aspect of Dublin’s housing market, including; rental rates broken down by area, the number of registered tenancies versus owner-occupied homes in Dublin and rental and property prices.

While its main purpose is to inform and help shape Dublin City Council housing policies, the DHO Mapping Viewer is available to the public as an objective source of information on the dynamics of Dublin’s housing market. This will also serve a useful purpose for developers, home builders, place-makers and investors, turning a wealth of data into actionable insights.

The tool is the result of a collaboration between the All-Island Research Observatory (based at Maynooth University), Dublin City Council and Ordnance Survey Ireland.

Real estate is typically a data-rich industry and there has certainly been a growing awareness of the commercial potential of all this data over the last few years, but very few operators have really gotten to grips with how to capitalise on it. It is a consistent challenge of smart city initiatives. To have this tool made publicly available is a massive step forward for Ireland in terms of proptech (the emerging sector of digital solutions for the construction and property industries) and in terms of market transparency.

So how does it work?

The DHO Mapping Viewer provides the most detailed information on Dublin’s housing market, specifically: zoning and planning, the rental market, property sales and valuations, side by side with socio-economic variables drawn from the most recent Census information.

While many of the insights shared initially will not come as a surprise to many –  lowest sales prices are on the north side and outside the M50, with the highest in the south city and areas close to the coast – it might be interesting to learn that Stillorgan, followed by Dundrum, is the most expensive area in which to rent in Dublin (and not the south Docklands or Dublin 4). Also, despite the rate of home ownership nationally in decline, 68% of housing in Dublin’s suburbs is owner-occupied.

We have had this data for years across various State and private organisations, what we were missing was the intelligent, coherent interpretation of it.

Until now, these data-rich insights would have afforded significant strategic and competitive advantage to the holder, now that they are publicly available, it levels the playing field to some extent.  It is absolutely critical that developers and home builders start using this free resource to analyse and interpret the map data to achieve a deeper understanding of any given area.

Dr Dáithí Downey, Head of Housing Policy, Research and Development at Dublin City Council referred to the DHO Mapping Viewer as a “game changer” and, simply put, we agree.

Ian Lawlor
086 3625482

Director / Business Development
Lotus Investment Group