Full coverage: Strategic Housing Development

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.

Three people living near a student accommodation project in Goatstown, Dublin 14 – one of them head of development for a co-living company – are being sued by an investor for "wrongfully delaying" the project.

One in eight An Bord Pleanála decisions on strategic housing have been challenged - and the vast majority have been successful. In a major report, we ask: why and where the system is failing?