About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges of the current housing market and the systemic issues affecting it, featuring economist Ronan Lyons.

Housing is the biggest expense most of us will ever face, and across Ireland and much of the Western world, the system simply isn’t working. Is this another housing bubble, or something more dangerous? In this first episode of a special three-part series on housing, we sit down with Trinity College economist Ronan Lyons to unpack what’s really happening beneath the headlines. Lyons argues the problem isn’t a speculative bubble like the 2000s. Instead, we’re living in a “brittle” housing system, one where pressure has quietly built for years because societies simply aren’t building the right homes in the right places for the way people live today. This means young people stuck living with parents, sharing overcrowded homes, or emigrating to start their lives elsewhere. We explore how focusing only on prices and rents misses the real issue , why housing shortages are now appearing across Europe and the English-speaking world, and how demographic change is colliding with planning systems designed for a different era. Part one asks the key question: Where are we now? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Hosts: David McWilliams, John Davis

Guest: Ronan Lyons

Topics covered

• housing market
• economic system
• demographic change
• housing shortages
• urban planning
• young people
• brittle housing system

Keywords

• housing market
• brittle system
• Ronan Lyons
• Ireland
• housing shortages
• demographics
• urban planning

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Trinity College

Places: Ireland, Europe, Western world

More episodes of The David McWilliams Podcast

• Is America Losing Control? · April 27, 2026 · 44 min
• The Premature State: Why Ireland Can’t Build Itself · April 22, 2026 · 44 min
• Subsidies, Strikes and the Coming July Clash · April 20, 2026 · 34 min
• Is Ireland the Worst-Run Rich Country in Europe? · April 15, 2026 · 44 min
• The Housing Finale: Can Ireland Build Its Way Out? · April 13, 2026 · 38 min
• How The Housing Market Was Designed to Fail - Part 2 · April 8, 2026 · 44 min

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