Full coverage: Housing

Beyond immediate shelter, more and more people need complex assistance to escape entrenched homelessness. Price competition between charities has pushed the sector to the brink, but procurement policy is now changing.

A plan to build 1,000 apartments has been hit by disputes and delays for nearly 20 years. It is finally moving but only after Dublin City Council recut key aspects to make it viable for Bartra, its privately-owned developer with a Hong Kong guarantee.

Over the next 30 years, the country will have to double its housing stock if it is to meet demand. Yet, sadly, the nation’s housing policy is still firmly rooted in trying to limit excess supply as opposed to wrestling with the more significant issue of cost.

Past proposals to redevelop the Hendrons building attracted opposition across the political spectrum. A new American fund manager now wants to deliver housing on the semi-derelict site.

Ireland's planning system is unusal for how it relies on individual planner discretion. A provision in the new planning bill would, in certain circumstances, replace planner discretion with objective rules.

This summer, a landmark building changed hands for €23 million; meanwhile Dublin City Council agreed to pay nearly four times that price to use it for emergency accommodation over 10 years. Its landlord appears in a series of similar deals.

While rental availability in Dublin has almost trebled in the last year, the availability in the four other cities combined is effectively unchanged. The effect on prices confirms that supply has an impact on rents.

Ireland needs to invest billions in infrastructure. Most of the benefits will go to landowners and developers. But there's a way to make developers foot the bill.

Under what circumstances would I argue that we don’t need to build lots more homes? To answer that, we need to go back as well as forward.

Between steady commencements and a rebound in imports of tower cranes, indications are that Ireland is set to build more of the homes it needs in the coming year.