The David McWilliams Podcast The Housing Finale: Can Ireland Build Its Way Out?
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Apr 14, 2026 
Ronan Lyons, professor and housing economist, offers sharp analysis of Ireland’s housing challenges. He talks about making housing boring again, the affordability–viability–efficiency triangle, and why household formation matters. They debate tax levers, apartment costs, land-use rules, planning uncertainty, and practical steps like reducing build costs and reforming zoning to match how people live today.
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Use The Housing Triangle To Guide Policy
- Policymakers should treat housing as a triangle linking household income, housing price, and cost of providing new housing and act on all three corners.
- Use tax, planning and public policy to align costs with incomes and ensure viability for builders.
Build Apartments To Match Smaller Households
- Recalibrate housing supply to household composition: about three quarters of new households will be one- or two-person, so most new homes should be apartments.
- Building costs make a minimum two-bed apartment cost ~€550k, implying unaffordability for average incomes without subsidies.
Build Costs Create A High Affordability Floor
- High build costs create a viability floor that prices new rentals at levels only very high-income households can afford.
- Lyons calculates a two-bed apartment yield implies net monthly rent ~€2,750, requiring household gross income ≈€150,000 to avoid overburden.