Full coverage: Housing

Tokyo is worth paying attention to because it shows how to have your cake and eat it: A growing, rich, modern city with low rents, and a unique culture.

It is often said that Irish officialdom routinely favours landlords with better protection and more advantageous rules. The past year’s battle to obtain information on HAP recipients appears to confirm this.

The Housing Assistance Payment is one of the state’s largest subsidy schemes, yet the identity of its recipients has been a well-guarded secret. Data obtained through a freedom of information request lifts a corner of the veil.

Behind a leafy façade in Georgian Dublin, a small team has been instrumental in directing global institutional investors towards Irish property development. Based on hundreds of documents, site visits and insider information, this investigation tells Ardstone’s story.

When the housing crisis emerged, Ardstone Capital had an address book full of international investors and no baggage from the Irish property crash. In the past six years, it has discreetly funded every possible type of home in the country.

Galway developer Alber has planning permission for over 100 homes on a Comer site, but has yet to pay for it. The property is at the centre of parallel legal and rezoning clashes.

Some of those criticising the Croí Cónaithe scheme have been consistent in their suspicion developers are making large profits from building homes. The problem with this theory is that there is effectively no evidence for it.

The answer to this question depends on your definition of “good” or “bad”, your points of reference, and your units of comparison. This week Stephen Kinsella decided to have a debate about it. With himself.

Major new data on housing delivery and costs reveal just how weak supply really is. But to fix the problem, we need to focus on land, the role of public housing and the vexed issue of construction costs.

Fiona Cormican has been instrumental in turning the non-profit into Ireland’s largest private landlord. From the era of grant-funded council homes to the brave new world of investment funds and cost rental, she details what has happened to Ireland’s housing market – and what needs to happen now.