Investigating a ruthless rental empire

Investigating a ruthless rental empire

From The Irish Passport

May 4, 2025 · 1h 22m

About this episode

This episode investigates Marc Godart, a rogue landlord in Ireland, detailing his controversial practices and the journalism behind the story.

Naomi spent months investigating a rogue landlord who built up an empire of rental properties in Ireland backed by family wealth in Luxembourg. In this episode, we tell the story of Marc Godart: his back story, the controversial evictions that brought him to prominence, and the unusual ways he runs his businesses. This is based on reporting by Naomi and her colleagues at the Irish Times that was recently awarded the Mary Raftery Prize for social affairs journalism. The winning story is here: https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2024/01/13/under-the-eye-of-landlord-marc-godart-how-a-tenant-who-objected-to-cctv-surveillance-was-evicted/ You can read more of Naomi's reporting here: https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/housing-planning/2024/02/17/working-for-marc-godart-paper-directors-shadow-airbnb-accounts-ruthless-staff-practices/ https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/04/15/the-luxembourg-family-behind-an-irish-property-empire Bonus episodes are available for supporters over on www.patreon.com/theirishpassport

People in this episode

Host: Naomi

Topics covered

  • rental properties
  • landlord
  • investigation
  • housing
  • journalism

Keywords

  • rental empire
  • rogue landlord
  • Marc Godart
  • evictions
  • Irish Times
  • housing crisis
  • journalism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Irish Times, Mary Raftery Prize

Places: Ireland, Luxembourg

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