This week’s episode looks at the housing crisis from a slightly quirky angle.

Imagine if Michael O’Leary decided to set up a development company to build housing and applied some of the lessons from Ryanair’s experience in disrupting the air travel business over the past three decades.

It’s a point that Irish Times economics correspondent Eoin Burke Kennedy posited in a column earlier this week. Could a no-frills approach reduce construction costs that could in turn be passed on to home buyers?

Paul Mitchell, director of construction consultancy Mitchell McDermott and an expert on construction costs, also joins the podcast to give his thoughts on potential solutions to ease the housing crisis in the coming years. Mitchell McDermott recently produced a cost study report on behalf of the Department of Housing, contained in which is the eye-watering figure of €600,000 now necessary to build a two-bedroom urban apartment.

Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

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