This is a guest piece from Connor Holbert. Connor is a working professional who lives in London. He has also lived in the United States, Mexico, and Ireland, personally witnessing how housing scarcity affected each country.
I moved to Dublin in autumn 2022. By then, the housing shortage had already spread across much of the Western world. The combination of Covid-19 and a missing decade of construction was pushing cities to the breaking point.
My first impression of Dublin was softened by the fact that a friend had secured me a room in the suburbs. It was expensive for what it was, a box room in a detached four-bed, one-bath house in Stillorgan. The place hadn’t been updated in decades, and the thin walls made for a bitter winter. Still, seeing my breath indoors felt like a minor inconvenience compared to what was happening across the city.
Signs of the housing crisis were impossible to miss. At UCD, one student resorted to living in a tent after failing to find accommodation. Homelessness hit record highs month after month. And in August 2023, Dublin claimed the dubious prize of Europe’s most expensive rental market per square metre, surpassing even London and Paris.
I didn’t truly meet the crisis until summer 2024. With just an hour’s notice, I joined dozens of working professionals at a viewing in Ranelagh. The listing promised a four-bedroom Georgian flat with two bathrooms for €1,000, a price so rare it felt like winning the lottery. Short notice or not, no one was going to pass it up.
But the hope for a decent living quickly dissolved the moment we stepped inside. The “four-bedroom” was in fact a ten-bedroom boarding house, carved up beyond recognition. A gaping hole in the floor looked straight into the kitchen. To this day, I wonder when the photos of the house were taken because a great deal had happened since they were snapped.
I left Dublin in autumn last year, and since then good news has been rare. But recently, a small flash of hope has appeared in the form of the accessory dwelling unit, or granny flat, as it’s known in Ireland.
The idea is straightforward: any secondary home built within an existing garden would no longer need planning permission. The policy was arguably inspired by California, where ADU reforms have permitted more than 83,000 new homes since 2016.
And why shouldn’t they? By 2022, one in five new homes built in California was an ADU. In many of Los Angeles’ notoriously expensive, low-build suburbs, ADUs now make up the largest share of new housing.
But Dublin should note that California’s breakthrough didn’t come quickly. ADUs were first legalised in 1982, but saw minimal construction for decades. Lawmakers only returned to ADU regulation after the crisis grew severe. A reform in 2016 began to shift momentum, and a series of follow-up bills between 2017 and 2023 finally cleared away the barriers that had stifled construction.
The lesson from California is simple: delay wastes decades. If ADUs are to work, Ireland should act with urgency.
I once described the Irish Government’s housing plan as a bandaid over a serious wound. However, the housing crisis is a wound so deep it can only be closed gradually. Ireland will continue to lose its young and talented individuals to Australia, London, or Canada this year and next. A forty-year crisis cannot be solved straight away.
But as the saying goes, we must not let perfect be the enemy of good. Passing ADUs would be one small but vital step towards easing the pressure.
For those watching from across the Irish Sea and the Atlantic, California offers lessons worth noting, especially for London, the UK’s most dire housing market.
First, ADUs have delivered affordable homes where they’re needed most. In Los Angeles, a shortage of entry-level housing left the poorest residents spending more than 40% of their income on rent. ADUs helped to ease that pressure by adding supply.
Second, local authorities do not always have the incentives or power to lead such change. It was statewide legislation, cutting through neighbourhood objections, that unlocked real growth.
Third, land use reform is never a one-off. California’s progress came from steady, incremental changes.
Progress demands constant attention. Creating an abundance of housing requires being measured on outcomes. The ADU has not solved California’s housing crisis, but it is a step in the right direction. May Dublin and London follow suit.
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