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Sunday Property Round-Up 14th June 2026 


Sunday Property Round-Up 14th June 2026 

Weekly Irish property market news and insights – for the industry, by the industry

It was a big week of — and for — industry data… 

New Deloitte study shows that the housing crisis now overshadows career and life decisions of two generations of adults, as shortage and spiralling costs mean most homebuyers are now over 30: Typical age has risen sharply, climbing from 35 in 2010 to 40 today 

The Irish Examiner published a special report on ‘The HAP Trap’, homelessness, and a mismatch in housing supply and demand, putting the near total wipeout of social housing following the financial crash as the root cause. For context, in 1975, local authorities built 8,794 social housing units – the highest on record until 2025, however, during the crash, local authority builds were down from 158 in 2014 to just 75 in 2015.

Hundreds of students at Ireland’s third-level institutions are homeless and it appears that Government’s new plan to counter rising homelessness figures is to restrict access to homeless services under new residency rules.

On the development front, Michael Bailey firm contests Fingal council demand for €1m financial contribution over plan for 530 new homes; Dublin’s ‘leading luxury residential builder’ Whelan O’Keeffe goes into liquidation, while Cairn Homes criticises minister’s plan to rezone land for 23,600 homes in Dublin.

There is an excellent piece by Laura Roddy in the Business Post, including: Why Cairn Homes believes the government is overstating how quickly rezoned industrial land can deliver new housing in Dublin; the practical obstacles developers face, from fragmented land ownership and infrastructure constraints to significant upfront regeneration costs; Cairn’s analysis suggesting a substantial shortfall between projected housing delivery and what can realistically be built before 2030.

As Ardale’s Emma Maye explains why – ”We’re finding Ireland a bit difficult. England just seems easier to work in” (supported by O’Flynn Group’s 23 years to break ground in Dunkettle), Louth-based construction firm GEC Development and Construction Ltd has seen its plans to construct nine “age friendly” bungalows in Castleblayney County Monaghan branded as “overbearing”.

This treatment of development activities comes in a week where  CSO data confirms that while planning permissions nationwide are down just 1% , Dublin approvals fell 34% in Q1. 

While the “radical overhaul” of planning we were promised years ago has fallen well short of needs and expectations, on iProperty Radio this week planner Robert Molloy explains why there can be no much-needed planning reform without planners.

POSITIVE PLACE ENGAGEMENT

All of this points to the need to work with communities and harness their local wisdom to get the homes and infrastructure needed on the ground. By way of example, a public meeting IN SUPPORT of a proposed new Lidl store in South Roscommon is taking place next Thursday, as a petition in support of the project has already garnered more than 650 signatures. 

Owners of derelict properties in 107 towns to be hit by new 7% tax with ramped-up Revenue enforcement: Proposals going to the Cabinet on Tuesday will initially apply to cities and smaller towns, like Sligo and Navan, before being rolled out further.

On iProperty Radio, we speak to Architect and UCD Researcher, Triona Stack, about the rules and regulations impacting the viability of bringing vacant, derelict, and over-the-shop spaces back to life.

Ireland’s 2026 EU Presidency – What it means for housing and the built environment

In advance of kicking off our Place Engage: 26-Week, 26-County Placemaking tour, we explore the agenda and priorities for the next six months. Contact me directly to get involved.

📧 All stories are covered in full within this week’s Sunday Property Round-Up on iProperty Radio, powered by Property District – now the largest weekly newsletter BY and FOR Ireland’s real estate and construction industry. If it’s not in your inbox yet, email carol@caroltallon.com to receive a copy.

PROPERTY DISTRICT PRESS OFFICE 

Below are the local and international stories that might be of particular interest:

  • Cairn Homes criticises minister’s plan to rezone land for 23,600 homes in Dublin: Excellent piece by Laura Roddy in the Business Post, including: • Why Cairn Homes believes the government is overstating how quickly rezoned industrial land can deliver new housing in Dublin. • The practical obstacles developers face, from fragmented land ownership and infrastructure constraints to significant upfront regeneration costs. • Cairn’s analysis suggesting a substantial shortfall between projected housing delivery and what can realistically be built before 2030. https://www.businesspost.ie/companies/carin-homes-criticises-ministers-plan-to-rezone-land-for-23600-homes-in-dublin/
  • Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) screening rules are open for review, homebuilders nationwide need to speak up: Here’s what’s changing, why it matters for delivery, and how to make a submission that lands https://propertydistrict.ie/?p=20769
  • Limerick Chamber warns Mid-West growth at risk without infrastructure delivery: Business group says housing, transport and public services must be backed by investment and accountability if the region is to meet future demand: Chief Executive of Limerick Chamber, Donnacha Hurley, said the region cannot afford another strategy that sets ambitious targets without providing the funding and delivery structures needed to achieve them. He said that assets such as Shannon Airport, Shannon Foynes Port, the Shannon Estuary, Limerick City and the region’s universities should be recognised as national economic drivers rather than simply regional assets https://ipropertyradio.com/limerick-chamber-warns-mid-west-growth-at-risk-without-infrastructure-delivery/
  • Ireland can’t solve its housing crisis without knowing how all properties are being used: Unlike many of our European counterparts, we have no reliable system for tracking who lives in what properties in Ireland, and it’s costing us valuable time — Jude Sherry and Dr Frank O’Connor https://www.thejournal.ie/dereliction-in-ireland-7063798-Jun2026/

EU POLICY & RESEARCH IMPACTING HOUSING DELIVERY 

🇪🇺 Ireland’s 2026 EU Presidency – What it means for housing and the built environment

Ní neart go cur le chéile. Strength in unity: Agenda and priorities for the next six months: https://caroltallon.com/irelands-2026-eu-presidency-what-it-means-for-housing-and-the-built-environment/ 

WHAT I AM READING (RE-READING!) THIS WEEK

When Planning Becomes Re-Traumatisation: The Case for Trauma-Informed Placemaking in Ireland

Dr.s Cara Courage and Anita McKeown coined the term “trauma-informed placemaking” during the 2020 syndemic, and their landmark edited textbook Trauma Informed Placemaking (Routledge, 2024: Amazon link – https://amzn.to/4e6X6WM) represents the first sustained gathering of praxis in this field. Their argument is foundational: while place is commonly viewed as either contested or convivial, its potential to hold or cause trauma is rarely acknowledged. They position trauma-awareness not as an optional lens, but as essential to understanding and working meaningfully with place. The book draws 66 contributors from 14 countries across 36 chapters, offering 20 original frameworks, toolkits and learning exercises and proposing a clear pathway through six principles for a trauma-informed approach (drawing on the Trauma Informed Institute, 2023):

  1. Safety: Develop an awareness of trauma in place.
  2. Trustworthiness and Transparency: Understand trauma in place as placemakers.
  3. Peer Support: Ask ourselves, what can we do as placemakers?
  4. Collaboration and Mutuality: Consider a Community of Praxis.
  5. Empowerment, Voice and Choice: Become part of the community.
  6. Cultural, Historical and Gender Issues: Our call to action: be mindful.

The Four Rs: Where Irish Planning Is Failing

Courage and McKeown’s framework offers four operational principles – the four Rs – that translate trauma-informed awareness into practice. They are: Realise, Recognise, Respond, and Resist. The last of these is the hinge on which everything else turns.

  • Realise requires an intentional awareness of trauma and its presence in place. Both Cork City Council and Donegal County Council proceeded with planning decisions without any apparent realisation that they were operating on sites of acute, unresolved, community-held trauma. The planning inspector’s report on the Creeslough application concluded that the proposed development “would not injure the amenities of the area”. That conclusion is technically inadequate. It does not engage with the human reality of the place.
  • Recognise requires the ability to read the signs of trauma — and those signs were not subtle. Survivors speaking publicly. Legal submissions. Protests. Human rights organisations calling for a halt. Letters from academics citing international human rights law obligations. These are not planning objections of the ordinary kind. They are the voice of traumatised communities telling the system clearly and repeatedly that it does not understand what it is dealing with.
  • Respond requires a trauma-informed response proportionate to what has been recognised. This does not mean refusing all development in perpetuity. It means pausing, listening, consulting, and designing responses that centre the community’s needs. It means that before any groundworks are approved at Bessborough, the State must first fulfil its Article 2 ECHR obligations and locate the remains of those buried there. It means that before any development is granted on the Creeslough site, the bereaved families must have been meaningfully engaged, justice processes completed, and the community given genuine agency over what happens in their place.
  • Resist re-traumatising the community. This is the most important principle of all, and it is the one being most visibly violated right now. As of this week, the Creeslough families are travelling to Dublin to seek a meeting with the Minister for Justice about a public inquiry, while simultaneously having to contend with planning decisions taken without them on the site where their loved ones died. The Bessborough families are appealing to An Coimisiún Pleanála a planning decision that, by its very existence, sends a signal that the State has not yet finished failing them. Both local authorities are, at this moment, actively re-traumatising the communities they are supposed to serve. They need to stop.

The Community Knows Best

There is a principle that cuts across trauma-informed placemaking, community development, and participatory planning alike; communities are experts in their own lives and their own places. No planning inspector, however competent, possesses the knowledge of place that is held by a survivor of Bessborough, or a parent who lost a child in Creeslough. No planning report can substitute for that knowledge. And no planning process that excludes it can claim legitimacy.

Courage and McKeown’s call to action – to build a Community of Praxis, to centre empowerment, voice and choice – is a direct challenge to the procedural formalism that allows planning authorities to discharge their functions without ever genuinely listening. Ireland has a statutory framework for public participation in planning. What it does not yet have is a framework that distinguishes between standard consultation and trauma-sensitive engagement. Sending a letter to a bereaved family inviting them to submit observations on a planning application is not the same as sitting with them, understanding their relationship to that place, and co-designing what should happen there.

What both Bessborough and Creeslough require is not just appeals and reversals, though those may well be warranted. What they require is a real change in how planning authorities approach sites of trauma. That means statutory guidance. It means mandatory trauma impact assessment alongside environmental impact assessment for sites carrying histories of violence, loss, or institutional abuse. It means community co-design processes that begin before planning applications are lodged, not after. It means that the affected community has an equal seat at the planning table – not as consultees, but as decision-makers.

The academic and advocacy work is ahead of the policy. Courage and McKeown have built the framework. Lanphier, Fox-Rogers and Murphy have mapped the field. What is needed now is for Irish planning policy – from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, through An Coimisiún Pleanála, to local authority planning departments – to take this seriously as a matter of professional practice.

Key takeaway: Resist re-traumatising the community.

Read more: https://caroltallon.com/when-planning-becomes-re-traumatisation-the-case-for-trauma-informed-placemaking-in-ireland/ 

If you missed last week’s round-up, you can catch up here: https://ipropertyradio.com/sunday-property-round-up/ 
As always, you might let me know if I have missed out on any relevant property news by emailing carol@caroltallon.com 

PLACEMAKING: https://placeengage.com

Open public consultations and community engagement, in association with the Public Consultation Institute of Ireland

  • Beautiful – Sustainable – Together: Aligned with Aarhus Convention transparency and New European Bauhaus principles, PLACEengage empowers communities, planners, and developers across Ireland’s public and private sectors to collaborate more effectively — Learn more at www.PLACEengage.com PLACEengage: Better placemaking, together.
  • Draft Galway Wastewater Strategy Open for Public Consultation: Uisce Éireann | Public consultation open from 28 May 2026 to 23 July 2026
Draft Galway Wastewater Strategy Open for Public Consultation

Rural, Coastal & Islands

CONSTRUCTION: https://breakingground.news 

  • Mid-West needs delivery-first investment plan to unlock growth potential says Limerick Chamber: Chamber calls for infrastructure-led regional strategy as Limerick-Shannon receives lowest per capita capital funding among Ireland’s five metropolitan areas
Mid-West needs delivery-first investment plan to unlock growth potential says Limerick Chamber

Breaking Ground News: Appointments & Construction Careers

  • BGN Construction Careers, your weekly newsletter from Breaking Ground news, keeps you updated on the latest job opportunities, while showcasing the very best employer brands and projects, across Ireland’s construction industry. Whether you are looking for your next role or planning your career path, stay connected with us for new openings, upskilling opportunities and industry news. Get all the latest job 

details straight to your inbox: Sign up https://breakingground.news/sign-up-form/

Breaking Ground: Construction Podcast 

PLANNING REFORM WON’T WORK WITHOUT PLANNERS

This week on the Breaking Ground podcast on iProperty Radio, Carol Tallon chats to Robert Molloy, Executive Planner at Foundation about his recent call for “a more honest conversation about resourcing in planning.  A proper conversation. A frank one. One that recognises that the planning system is only as strong as the people available to operate it…”

❓ Do current courses teach the next generation of planners what the profession actually demands?

❓ Is urbanism – and placemaking more broadly – becoming a different function, beyond the role of planners?

❓ Are private sector project promoters afraid to rock the boat and damage relationships with local authority planners?

❓ Are local planners feeling supported and empowered by our current system? 

❓ How corrosive is the current planning narrative and media commentary to practitioners, across both public and private sector?

This is a timely conversation, before the iProperty Radio team starts its non-political ‘Place Engage: Virtual Town Hall Placemaking Roadshow’ throughout the duration of Ireland’s EU Council Presidency: 26 counties. 26 weeks. One shared conversation about place – supported by the Public Consultation Institute of Ireland ( 📧 hello@ipropertyradio.com  to discuss your county)

✍ Read Robert’s article in full here: https://ipropertyradio.com/planning-reform-wont-work-without-planners/  

🎧 Listen back: https://open.spotify.com/episode/654GZMlFGJPCCi8ZE5JUFN?si=Y0quqFU4SXeQQPaBlwQNWw 

📹 Watch in full: https://youtu.be/efh0acAOM40?si=1mXZhq2rezCiFl2S  

CIF Safety Campaign 2026 Podcast 

 Construction Safety 2026: Refocus on Site Safety – Cahalane Brothers

“Pride is something that should be instilled from day one. No matter the task, or what you have done on site. It’s something that we struggled with for numerous years… but it is something that should be instilled in everyone on site”

Looking back at Episode 1 of the Construction Industry Federation’s Construction Safety 2026 podcast, where Safety, Health & Skills Executive, John Egan, joins Donal Cahalane, Director; Jerry Crowley, Site Manager; Eithne Hennessy, Safety Manager; and Gabriel Travers, Project Manager on site at Clonakilty Community Hospital. 

Listen back: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4x4z8cNqPBWFBpHNSBU4dT?si=pjcnA38WSPu8iOSvl3wkZw

Watch back: https://youtu.be/daD6UysxqVk?si=D2961fbv0wgnpFc8

Recorded on sites across Ireland — from a European HQ in Dublin’s Docklands, to the largest Capex energy project in the State — catch up  the entire 2025 & 2026 series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5hAEpymn6vnhCbgSqe6T8TJTfB9mvD6C&si=ity7U_ANvSSyc0bU

REAL ESTATE: www.irishrealestate.news

Residential 

*Searching for a new home or investment property in Ireland? Join the iProperty Radio FACEBOOK community of property buyers in Ireland 2026: https://www.facebook.com/groups/IrishPropertyBuyers/ 

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iProperty Radio: Property Round-Up

VACANT TO VIABLE – Podcast with Triona Stack, Architect & Researcher University College Dublin

❓ What does it actually take to turn an empty space above a shop into a home?

More than most people imagine – and that complexity is part of why so many of these buildings stay vacant.

In the latest iProperty Radio podcast, I sat down with Triona Stack, architect and researcher at UCD School of Architecture, to talk about ‘Vacant to Viable’ – the research asking whether our building regulations create barriers to reusing existing buildings as homes.

The findings are striking.

To bring a vacant over-the-shop property back into use, a single professional – usually the architect – has to navigate roughly 27 acts and statutory instruments, 14 technical guidance documents (TGDs), and around 380 primary citations across Irish, British and European standards. Thousands of pages.

And because different local authority officers across planning and conservation, right through to building control and, specifically, fire regulation, can interpret those rules differently, the same project can face different requirements.

The result? Paralysis. Owners, and sometimes even local authorities, are unsure how to proceed.

But it’s not all daunting. Triona’s team uncovered what they call the “hidden myths” – barriers people believe exist in the regulations but actually don’t – alongside “genius gems” worth knowing about.

Commissioned by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, led by the Irish Green Building Council, and funded through Enterprise Ireland‘s Construct Innovate, this is research with real momentum behind it.

This is a timely conversation, too. It comes just before the iProperty Radio team sets out on its non-political Place Engage Placemaking Roadshow, running throughout Ireland’s EU Council Presidency: 26 counties. 26 weeks. One shared conversation about place.

If you work in architecture, planning, building control, conservation or housing delivery, this research will help.

🎧 Listen back: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2nYXJiqbKHyAUKoTOec64q?si=p1_5ppMxSNKHKYGVJ22ybg 

📹 Watch back: https://youtu.be/vcq6Ce0cLyU?si=VHt3VosIIMAeYpue  

Housing Insights: The Housing Agency Podcast

This practitioner-led series aims to deepen the public’s understanding of housing in Ireland and highlight the work of The Housing Agency.

Hosted by David Silke (Director of Insights & Operations) and Roslyn Molloy (Head of Policy, Practice & Communications), the podcast features insightful interviews with housing experts.

 

🎙️ Links to all episodes at https://ipropertyradio.com/housing-agency/

PROPTECH, CONSTRUCTION TECH & SMART CITIES: https://prop-tech.ie/

Proptech Ireland is updating the database of 2026 Irish technology providers for the built environment – sign up here: https://prop-tech.ie/register/  and email product or service details to hello@prop-tech.ie

  • Proptech Ireland: Ireland’s CONSTRUCTION and REAL ESTATE ESG technologies resource hub. Confused about how and where to start on your ESG journey? Contact us 👉https://prop-tech.ie
  • We can’t afford to ignore AI when it comes to planning processes: Planning authorities in Honolulu, Los Angeles, Australia, Singapore and the UK have introduced AI-driven tools to speed up their approval processes. Garry Miley believes Ireland should making a start on our AI in planning journey https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41857581.html

PODCAST: The Proptech Hot Seat on iPropertyRadio.com

Proptech Hot seat is sponsored by Proptech Ireland, the hub for innovators, investors and industry leaders https://prop-tech.ie/ 

Produced by Katie Tallon, with Hear Me Roar Media on sound https://hearmeroarmedia.com 

All Proptech Hot Seat episodes –  https://ipropertyradio.com/proptech-hot-seat/ 

INFRASTRUCTURE, ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT & BIODIVERSITY

INTERNATIONAL

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