Residency Reshaped Explores Dublin’s Housing and Renter Expectations
Expanding Residency Reshaped to Dublin
In 2024, Hugo, Corgan’s research and innovation team, conducted a foundational study entitled Residency Reshaped that focused on understanding renters’ needs and preferences in six cities across the southern United States. In 2025, the team applied the same mixed-methods approach in Dublin, Ireland, to better understand market-specific renter priorities. Amid rising housing costs and continued housing supply challenges, traditional assumptions about amenities, retention, value, and location are being challenged. Hugo’s research helps to clarify the factors that most influence Dublin renters’ choices.
Dublin has experienced continued in-migration, modest housing-stock growth, and a lower homeownership rate than the national average, alongside a rental sector increasingly influenced by institutional investors. The city’s housing challenge is not solely defined by insufficient supply, but also by a structural shift in the delivery model from build-to-sell to build-to-rent. These factors have resulted in high housing costs and limited supply, delaying entry into homeownership and making renting a long-term solution for a growing share of households. Residency Reshaped: Dublin highlights critical gaps between industry perceptions and renters' lived experiences, offering actionable insights for developers, owners, and property managers seeking to align future developments with resident priorities.
Methodology
Residency Reshaped: Dublin uses the same research framework as the original report: a literature scan, in-depth interviews, a large-scale survey, and detailed data analysis. The secondary research – including a literature review and market data analysis -- establishes the socioeconomic context of the city’s rental market. Interviews with renters, developers, and building managers, as well as a survey targeting renters in Dublin, provide greater insight into the assumptions and realities that are currently shaping renters’ experiences. By integrating quantitative data with qualitative insights and using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns, the study generated a robust understanding of the market, areas of alignment across stakeholders, and gaps between the developers’ expectations and renters’ realities.
Unlocking key findings
By exploring topics such as hybrid work, the value of location and design, and the practiality of amenities, the report provides insights into what attracts and retains renters as well as the impact of current economic conditions on renting versus owning.
[Remote working] has hugely influenced my housing needs as I need space for a proper desk to feel comfortable when I'm working and to have a proper both office and home.
The findings were translated into several key insights that challenge the assumptions made by building managers and developers. The report includes design strategies for each insight to better align new developments with renters’ lived preferences.
Contact Melissa Hoelting at melissa.hoelting [at] corgan.com (melissa[dot]hoelting[at]corgan[dot]com) to learn how you can collaborate with Hugo to bring this research to your market. To connect with Corgan's Dublin team, contact Maurice O'Neill at maurice.oneill [at] corgan.com (maurice[dot]oneill[at]corgan[dot]com).
Read the Full Report
To read the full report and learn more about the study conducted by Hugo, click the link below.
