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Sunday Property Round-Up 21st June 2026 


Sunday Property Round-Up 21st June 2026 

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

HOUSING CRISIS vs. HOUSING EMERGENCY 

This week starts with another slap in the face to our locked-out generation as the Business Post reports: ‘Average Irish homeowner now a millionaire’. In the same week, the housing crisis was also blamed for collapse in marriage rates (No home, no wedding) and RTÉ’s Cheap European Homes seeks participants for the upcoming season, which will focus on younger people in Ireland – who have given up hope of ever buying here – looking for property overseas. 

With this context, we welcome the call by the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV) for stamp duty exemptions to give first-time buyers of second-hand homes a chance. 

It is noteworthy to hear Tánaiste Simon Harris’ language has changed in recent weeks, referring to Ireland’s HOUSING CRISIS as a HOUSING EMERGENCY – this distinction is very important as the Oireachtas Housing Committee explores an ‘emergency response’ to homeless crisis, with more than 17,500 people, including 5,604 children, now in emergency accommodation. 

On the delivery side, housing commencements surge 161% as more than 13,000 new homes start construction in the first five months of 2026. The latest Department figures show housing starts more than doubled in May, with Dublin accounting for almost half of all new commencements and Fingal leading activity nationwide.

In further positive news, It was encouraging to see the European Housing Alliance officially launch in Brussels this week under the leadership of Commissioner Dan Jørgensen. The depth of engagement reflects just how central housing affordability has become to the European agenda.

It was particularly positive to see a strong Irish presence at the inaugural meeting, with representatives contributing not only from an Irish perspective but also helping to shape broader European thinking on housing delivery, affordability and community development. The discussions focused on the priorities for the Alliance and, more importantly, how governments, industry, communities and innovators can work together to translate shared ambitions into practical solutions. With Ireland taking up the Council Presidency from 1 July, the timing could not be better – and there’s real momentum to build on.

POSITIVE PLACE ENGAGEMENT

This comes in advance of our Place Engage: 26-Week, 26-County Placemaking tour kicking off on iProperty Radio, where we will travel to a different county across Ireland each week for the duration of Ireland’s EU Council Presidency to hear from people on the ground about their places.

As a first step, we hosted an iPoperty Radio LIVE event on 3D Planning withinLIfesize Plans, exploring ‘From Objections to Participation: How 3D Planning Could De-Risk Development’ – showing how early visual engagement can improve consultation, reduce uncertainty and create better placemaking outcomes for both communities and developers.

📧 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:

  • HOUSING commencements surge 161% as more than 13,000 new homes start construction in first five months of 2026: Latest Department figures show housing starts more than doubled in May, with Dublin accounting for almost half of all new commencements and Fingal leading activity nationwide.
Housing commencements surge 161% as more than 13,000 new homes start construction in first five months of 2026

EU POLICY & RESEARCH IMPACTING HOUSING DELIVERY 

  • The European Housing Alliance officially launch in Brussels this week under the leadership of Commissioner Dan Jørgensen, with discussions focused on how governments, industry, communities and innovators can work together to translate shared ambitions into practical solutions.

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.
  • North-South interconnector saga drags on for over two decades : Locals accept North-South interconnector is important to the electricity grid. But they are seeking ‘procedural justice’ and for every possible solution, including going underground, to be properly examined https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-41862525.html

Rural, Coastal & Islands

CONSTRUCTION: https://breakingground.news 

  • From Objections to Participation How 3D Planning Could De-Risk Development – Industry leaders say early visual engagement can improve consultation, reduce uncertainty and create better outcomes for communities and developers.
From Objections to Participation How 3D Planning Could De-Risk Development

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 

 “The Romans, the Greeks, the Renaissance leaders — and most importantly the Wide Streets Commissioners who gave us the Dublin we love — they planned by drawing the future. The best pieces of our city result from that. We replaced it with text.” — Tony Reddy

We recorded this podcast standing inside a building that doesn’t exist yet.

At the Lifesize Plans Ireland facility in Dublin, projected at 1:1 scale all around us, we virtually walked through what will be the tallest residential building in Ireland — a 30-storey tower near Heuston Station, twice the height of Liberty Hall.

It’s the perfect setting for the real question: why does Irish planning still happen on paper — in thousand-page documents almost nobody reads — when we can now walk a scheme before a single block is laid?

Tony Reddy, Chairman of Reddy Architecture + Urbanism, makes the case that Ireland’s “discretionary” system breeds the delay and objection we all live with — and that European cities plan, debate and agree their future in three dimensions. 

John Foley of Lifesize Plans Ireland shows what 1:1 design validation does to de-risk hundreds of millions before foundations go in. 

David McDowell of Reddy Architecture + Urbanism walks us through the live model dropped into the Dublin cityscape.

Then the room opened up:

🔹 Gavin Duffy of RealSim Ltd. — turning objectors into contributors through immersive engagement

🔹 Niall Morrissey of Housing Infrastructure Services Company (HISCo) — funding the shovel-ready infrastructure that unblocks delivery

🔹 Darragh Ryan of Remagin Ireland by Etex — what 1:1 walk-throughs mean for offsite construction

🔹 Richie Carroll of Homely — rent-to-own and unlocking demand

…alongside the homebuilders and delivery teams who joined us live. 

Huge thanks too to John and Emma for hosting us.

The thread through all of it: Urban Development Zones, front-loaded consultation, and a new Planning and Development Act that allows 3D city models but doesn’t yet mandate them. 

The Galway Housing Forum recently  summed it up — a plan “can’t just be a yellow box on a map”. 

The technology is here. The question is whether the system will use it.

🇪🇺 This kicks off iProperty Radio’s non-political Place Engage Placemaking Roadshow, running throughout Ireland’s EU Council Presidency: 26 counties. 26 weeks. One shared conversation about place: Faigheann cos ar siúl rud nach bhfaigheann cos ina chónaí.

*Apologies in advance, the audio for the first few minutes is a bit echoey, but e hit our stride a few minutes in – bear with us – joys of a LIVE event! 

Listen back: https://open.spotify.com/episode/64yBaZl6z2klyuKBibBKsx?si=9yfHGSEYRseWkCus7TJ6iA

Watch in full: https://youtu.be/7XCJZWxTCNs?si=2Lb_kuPAUDJjTSRF

CIF Safety Campaign 2026 Podcast 

Construction Safety: Murphy Group

In episode 9 of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) Construction Safety Campaign 2025 podcast, Director of Safety, Education & Training, Sean Downey, joins Kerrie O’ Flaherty, Graduate Civil Engineer, Henry O’Sullivan, Non-Destructive Testing Apprentice  and Daniel Browne, Graduate Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineer, on site at Murphy HQ! 

Listen back: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1hQqFf7U1yvejkHMUprHfC?si=7DyNIERQT96_XlH-iBif0Q

Watch back: https://youtu.be/ZshDgSEpDfc?si=IPytJVcOUlfka7kA

*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/ 

Commercial 

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

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/ 

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Carol Tallon