Rental crisis in stark figures and keeping your pension focused on sustainability

The number of properties available for rent across the State has dropped by over 60 per cent since before the Covid pandemic, new figures from estate agent Savills show. Eoin Burke-Kennedy writes that Dublin, though poor, still fares best among the 26 counties with more rented accommodation available in the capital than in all other counties combined.
The number of properties available for sale wasn’t great either but that didn’t stop mortgage approvals rebounding strongly in July, led by first-time buyers and aided by a modest recovery in the market for mortgage switching, writes Joe Brennan. Approvals for first-time buyers topped €1 billion in a month for the first time.
Everyone is under pressure to live more sustainably as the world tries to get to grips with emissions but what can you do if your employer’s glossy annual report brags about sustainability, while its pension scheme is pumping money into industries that are heating up the planet? Joanne Hunt has some tips for concerned employees looking to challenge their company’s corporate responsibility, finance or pension heads.
Shares in Ryanair soared on Tuesday after the airline group’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, signalled in an interview that the threat of a double-digit percentage drop in average air fares has been averted. Joe Brennan reports.
In his column, John McManus says the O’Leary and DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs are an apocalyptic double act best avoided by the Government which should be wary of being bounced into intervening over Dublin Airport’s passenger cap amid claims about €500 flights and €500m in lost tourism revenue.
Tech giant Google was unexpectedly refused permission for the third phase of its data centre park at Grange Castle in Dublin, with South Dublin County Council citing “the existing insufficient capacity in the electricity network (grid) and the lack of significant on-site renewable energy to power the data centre” among reasons for its refusal. Gordon Deegan reports
Meanwhile, households face a €100 increase in electricity bills after the industry regulator decided that grid operator Eirgrid and ESB Networks which manages power distribution need €1.4 billion to invest in maintaining and improving a network struggling to keep pace with fast-growing demand and renewables connections. Barry O’Halloran has the details.
Almost a quarter of all pubs in the State have closed for business in the past 20 years, according to figures from Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (Digi), the umbrella organisation for the wider drinks and hospitality industry in Ireland, in figures dating back to the introduction of the smoking ban. Ronan McGreevy reports that the industry is looking for respite on excise duties.
Karl Purdy’s Coffee Angel chain is worth €4.2 million according to a recent corporate restructuring, with the founder telling Barry J Whyte that that figure is conservative for a business that expects strong growth in sales and profit this year.
Pat Crean’s Marlet has pipped Kennedy Wilson in securing Workday for its landmark College Square office scheme in Dublin city centre. Property editor Ronald Quinlan said the US group looks set to occupy some 44,130 sq m (475,000 sq ft) of the office accommodation at the site.
UK banking giant Barclays’ European Union headquarters in Dublin saw the size of its balance sheet grow more than 5 per cent in the first six months of the year to reach €150 billion, writes Joe Brennan, as it continued to explore moving the hub to Paris.
Commercial Property returns this week with Ronald Quinlan reporting that hostelling remains big business in Galway as the well-established Sleepzone Hostel rebrands as The Dawson Hostel following what is understood to be a €5 million sale to a group of private Irish investors.
Finally, Fiona Keeley writes about Trifol Resources, an Irish fuel company based in Tipperary which has just struck its first deal – with oil major Shell – to supply it with a type of bio-oil called pyrolysis which it creates from plastic waste.
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