Cost of building apartments continues to spiral

The average cost of building a two-bed apartment in Dublin is now almost €600,000, according to the Department of Housing. The cost – spelled out in the department’s Total Development Cost Study — underlines the difficulty in building apartments which would be vital to arrest the housing shortage. As Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports, it found the cost of delivering a two-bed apartment in Dublin ranged from €549,790 in the suburbs to €591,783 in urban areas.
UK neobank Monzo has tapped former Stripe executive Michael Carney to lead its push into the European Union, putting two Irish men in charge of its key expansion plans.
As Taoiseach Simon Harris confirms the general election will take place before the end of the year, Eoin looks at the big economic issues that may help shape the campaign.
AIB is investing €40 million upgrading almost two-thirds of its 170-branch network by the end of next year, saying the work will reduce the group’s carbon emissions by a further 10 per cent as it targets being net zero across its own operations by 2030. Joe Brennan reports.
University College Dublin (UCD) has teamed up with Codling Wind Park, a new offshore wind venture, to explore the potential for restoring native oyster reefs and seagrass beds at selected sites in the Dublin Bay area. Eoin has the story.
Eoin also reports on a new report from Grant Thornton that shows just 16 per cent of Irish companies see geopolitical disruption from war or a second Donald Trump presidency in the US as a “potential constraint” compared to a global average of 43 per cent.
In her column, Pilita Clark asks a question that seemed obvious a couple of years ago, but seems to be less clear now. Namely, why aren’t people staying at home when they’re sick instead of traipsing into work and potentially infecting their colleagues.
Finally, Kevin Johnson of the Credit Union Development Association explains why it is a new era for lending in Ireland for the unions and how they are in position to finally fill the gap left by the exit of most building societies from the market here.
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