Mel Reynolds
@maoiliosarey.bsky.social
Architect, Project Manager, Conservation Architect, Certified Passive House Designer "Do less, better”
Up, up and away? “Ires receives €726.7m proposal from Barings International” www.irishtimes.com/business/202...
Ires receives €726.7m proposal from Barings International
Board of Dublin-listed property firm ‘minded to recommend’ deal if formal offer emerges
irishtimes.com
Good read “Irish people don’t want to live in ‘mostly awful’ apartments. Here’s five ways to fix them” www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
Lorcan Sirr: Irish people don’t want to live in ‘mostly awful’ apartments. Here are 5 ways to fix them
Apartment living was historically seen as ‘unnatural’ in Ireland. But attitudes won’t change until standards do
irishtimes.com
Interesting (below replacement) figures here for large existing tenanted apartment schemes being sold at present in today’s Business Post
Avison Young loses £8.7m battle over Buckingham overpayments | Construction Enquirer News www.constructionenquirer.com/2026/09/16/a...
Avison Young loses £8.7m battle over Buckingham overpayments
Court enforces damages award after inflated progress claims on Coventry earthworks job
constructionenquirer.com
Interesting figures, apartment prices outpacing general inflation- state demand for turnkey apartments may be driving this sector “Property Price Index July 2026 - Central Statistics Office” www.cso.ie/en/releasesa...
Residential Property Price Index July 2026 - Central Statistics Office
cso.ie
“In the city centre, 97 per cent of permitted schemes are apartments, and they’re hard to make work. Around 50 per cent of schemes aren’t starting” (Irish Times)
@cameronmurray.bsky.social I just worked out housing burden for a typical household in Ireland in 1962- it was 19.3% (similar to 2017 typical buyer)
I know I/we need to do these things, but
John Walton@thatjohn.bsky.social · 3w agoFor over a decade now my parents have kept an annually updated Clogs File (as in "pop your"), with all kinds of details: • computer passwords • banking details • the name of the one helpful person in the local branch • where the emergency cash stash is • which local funeral home is the good one
🎧 Lovely episode with the late Frank McDonald today on @3castlesburning.bsky.social threecastlesburning.libsyn.com
Three Castles Burning
Three Castles Burning is a social history podcast, dedicated to the story of the Irish capital. Dublin is a city of many stories, Three Castles Burning tells some of the more forgotten ones.
threecastlesburning.libsyn.com
Glacial pace of defects remediation scheme with just 4 out of 293 scheme applications issued with funding agreements (via Independent)
“It’s estimated that if 20 per cent of Italy’s railways, or roughly 3,000km of track, were used for solar installations like these, it would add up to a gigawatt of generating capacity, enough to power up to one million homes” www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...
irishtimes.com
Good read about house prices and rents in Austin Texas open.substack.com/pub/homeecon...
Why did Home Prices and Rents Fall in Austin?
It’s the housing cycle, not housing policy
open.substack.com
Wealth and inequality driven by house ownership “RTÉ News: Net wealth of households hits record high in first quarter - Central Bank” www.rte.ie/news/busines...
Net wealth of households hits record high - Central Bank
Irish household wealth has hit record levels again, but that growth may be coming to an end and inequality remains very high, according to a new Central Bank report.
rte.ie
"We wanted the houses to look like typical Swedish homes.. familiar architecture and details, but at an unusual scale that makes the absurdity of the situation immediately clear." x.com/dezeen/statu...
Dezeen (@dezeen) on X
Riksbyggen creates Sweden's smallest apartments to "make the housing crisis tangible" :https://t.co/LbahqcfzHw
x.com
Sutton PRS 140 unit residential scheme changes hands with a -10.7% loss in 3 years (Business Post)
“New data from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) tender price index showed commercial construction prices increased by 3 per cent in the first half of 2026” Irish Times
Almost 60% (46k) of all dwellings with planning permission have yet to commence in Dublin (Irish Times)
Excellent development “Solar farm big enough to power 25,000 homes planned for fields in north county Dublin” www.dublininquirer.com/solar-farm-b...
Solar farm big enough to power 25,000 homes planned for fields in north county Dublin
The roll-out of renewable energy generation is needs to be accelerated to hit Climate Action Plan targets, according to a report from the Climate Change Advisory Council.
dublininquirer.com
Systemic risk in housing sector due to high reliance on state supports highlighted in today’s Business Post editorial
"It feels like you have air-conditioning [inside the house] but you haven't. This is the beauty of the Passivhaus standard..” www.bbc.com/news/article...
Could these alternative homes be the future in a hotter Britain?
The Passivhaus standard is growing in popularity as UK homeowners adapt to hotter summer temperatures.
bbc.com
The pace of house price rises has softened to 5.6% due to uncertainty and interest rates, now doubling every 13 years (via Irish Times).
Good read “With three teenagers in the 1990s, we were emitting 16 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.. improvements in 2010 reduced that to 10 tonnes. After our retrofit, our carbon emissions over the last year dropped to two tonnes.. next.. an electric car.” Via Irish Times
“..enough wind energy to power 667,000 homes was lost in the first six months of this year due to a lack of storage.. Fossil fuels accounted for 79.2 per cent of Ireland’s total energy requirements in 2025, of which 78.2 per cent was imported, one of the highest rates in the EU.” @irishtimes.com
“Since 2013, 46 tax measures have been introduced in housing, alongside other rebates, funding and grants.. costing about €12 billion (or the equivalent of about 34,000 new social and affordable houses) per annum” @irishtimes.com
