There is a particularly interesting article in the Irish Examiner today wherein property developer Michael O’Flynn warns of the likely ‘unintended consequence’ of the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) new land tax to increase the price of new homes for homebuyers – you can read the article in full here. As regular readers here will be…

And what this means for home builders The most recent housing figures paint a more promising picture for home builders than daily media commentary might suggest. Housing Minister, Darragh O’Brien, has expressed his confidence to the Cabinet that the Government’s target for new homes, set at 29,000 this year, is on course to be met…

We have discussed this quite a lot over the past year, however, the most recently published stats on vacant commercial property this week promoted another conversation. According to the latest Geodirectory survey, Ireland is experiencing a significant rise in commercial property vacancies, with rates touching 14.1 percent, the highest since 2013. This increase is most…

The first half of 2023 has proven to be a challenging period for the development land market in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA), with a significant decline in both sales and deal sizes.  According to the latest report from Lisney Commercial Real Estate, the combined selling prices for the first six months totaled just €86…

If we start today by saying that we believe Ireland’s planning system is broken, not too many people here will disagree. However, if we put forward ideas for reform, we would expect a fairly robust level of disagreement.  With that in mind, Sean Keyes has published an interesting article in TheCurrency about the ‘Street Plans’ initiative. This…

Earlier this week, an academic piece of research by Cian O’Callaghan, Kathleen Stokes and Maedhbh Nic Lochlainn was published, exploring ‘Political and policy responses to urban vacancy, challenges that these policy objectives face, and lessons from the experience of those implemented’. This is a huge body of work and one that we recommend property development teams in…

In the second quarter of the year, Ireland’s market rents increased by an average of 2.4% compared to the first three months of 2023. However, this upward trend was not echoed in Dublin, which saw muted increases, according to the latest Rental Report by Daft.ie revealing a 10.7% year-on-year rise in open-market rents, pushing the…

Earlier this week the Irish Independent ran a story about an environmental group that is calling for a block on what they term “serial applicants” after the same owner was refused planning on a “sensitive” coastal site 17 times.  Now, we’re certainly not planning experts, but we do know that planning is a public function…

Apartment projects are nearly seven times less likely to have started construction In the midst of Ireland’s ongoing housing emergency, a concerning development has emerged. The Department of Housing has chosen to halt its investigation into the issue of unactivated planning permissions, which has been a significant contributing factor to the sluggish nature of the…

As the Irish construction industry tries to ramp up activity and output to address the ongoing housing crisis, recent conflicting reports add to the overall confusion. According to the Construction Industry Forecast 2023-2025, the industry faces challenges in the residential sector, with new housing starts experiencing a decline this year. However, other segments, such as…