Ireland’s two biggest housebuilders are the listed companies Cairn Homes and Glenveagh, followed by Joe O’Reilly’s development company Castlethorn, Cork developer Michael O’Flynn and Texan-backed Irish builder Evara.
Beyond the top five developers in Ireland, other notable firms include Harcourt Developments and Johnny Ronan’s former business partner Richard Barrett and his firm Bartra.
Pat Crean’s development company Marlet has a track record in large-scale apartment delivery in Dublin, as does the Cotter family’s Park Developments, which has projects underway in Dublin and Cork.
Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore also has a long-established record, building 15,000 home in Ireland over a number of decades and last year announced plans to build up to 4,000 more.
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In addition, other players in the market are building scale that will likely push them into the top tier of developers in the coming years:
Land Development Agency
Led by: John Coleman, chief executive
Pipeline: 27,000 homes
The State’s affordable home builder, led by John Coleman, has largely been a sleeping giant in the homebuilding sector since it was set up in 2018, but now appears primed to become the biggest residential developer in the state.
The Land Development Agency (LDA), which does not have an in-house construction team, has a pipeline of close to 27,000 homes that will be delivered through partnerships with private developers and contractors.
The land for almost 15,000 of those homes has been amassed by the LDA through more than half-a-dozen private land deals since the middle of 2023. The remainder of its sites were transferred to it by other State agencies.
Coleman, who recently renewed his contract at the agency to lead it for a further three years, has forecast the LDA’s annual output will rise to more than 2,500 homes by 2027 and more than 3,000 in 2028, which would make it the country’s largest producer of homes.
The agency has been granted access to up to €8.75 billion of funding from the State to deliver upon its housing programme and it plans to borrow up to €1 billion from the European Investment Bank to fund its delivery of new homes.
D/Res Properties
Led by: Patrick Durkan
Pipeline: 6,000 homes
The private development firm, founded by Patrick Durkan and Lone Star in 2018, has received significant backing in the past year that has helped scale up its housing pipeline to 6,000 homes.
Last year, a fund managed by US investor Avenue Capital, which received €150 million of backing from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, invested €27.5 million to take a minority stake in the Dublin-based residential builder.
That backing was given to D/Res to fund the acquisition of two sites in the Greater Dublin Area with capacity for 1,000 homes. In March, the company completed a €70 million deal to buy a 21-hectare site that borders Edmondstown Golf Club in Dublin 16 and the M50.
There were signs of further momentum at the business in May when D/Res Properties announced the launch of a joint venture with construction firm Sisk.
Called Arden, into which they have invested €32 million, it has plans to develop 1,000 social and affordable homes a year. Its first 635-home project called Foothills in Killinarden, south Dublin, will be delivered in partnership with South Dublin County Council.
The most recent accounts for the D/Res Properties group show revenues rose 46 per cent to €135.3 million in the year that ended June 2025, while after-tax profits were up eight-fold to €2.8 million.
Lioncor
Led by: Marcus Ryan, chief executive
Pipeline: 5,400 homes
Lioncor, a joint venture between US investor Oaktree and Dublin-based Alanis Capital, sits just around the edges of the country’s top 10 home builders in terms of annual output, with 521 homes delivered in 2025.
The company led by Marcus Ryan will likely solidify its position in the top tier in the coming years as it has some large projects under construction, including at the Glass Bottle Site, Dublin.
The firm is co-developing the project, which is expected to deliver about 4,000 homes, with Johnny Ronan’s Ronan Group. So far in 2026 it has built 352 apartments across two separate buildings on the Ringsend site, with a further 323 expected to be finished this year.
Lioncor’s owner Oaktree holds an 83.3 per cent stake in Pembroke Beach, the venture behind the Glass Bottle Site. Ronan Group has an 11.7 per cent stake, with the remaining 5 per cent owned by Lioncor.
Later this year, the company plans to start more homes at the Dublin 4 site and a 364-apartment and 21-house project called Fortfield in Terenure, Dublin. Next year, Lioncor has forecast it will complete a further 471 homes.
Lydon
Led by: directors Anthony, Pearse, Mairtin and Conor Lydon
Pipeline: 4,000 homes
The company set up by Martin and Patricia Lydon in 1977 is now being run by the next generation of the family.
Anthony, Pearse, Mairtin and Conor Lydon all hold senior roles at the family business, which has close to 2,000 homes under construction now across Dublin, Meath and Kildare.
Lydon has done some large deals with State entities in recent years to sell and develop homes for social and affordable housing, including a partnership with the LDA on its Priory Fields housing estate in Skerries, Co Dublin, to deliver 345 homes on the site.
This year the company also disclosed it has entered a partnership deal with Michael McElligott’s Tetrarch Capital to co-develop 49 hectares of land in south Dublin.
The company has been selected by Tetrarch to deliver on part of the lands called Sacra North, which have capacity for about 1,000 homes.
Other notable projects Lydon has in its pipeline include a 500-home development in Ashbourne, Co Meath, and one in Kilcarbery Grange in Clondalkin, Dublin 22.
The latter project is a joint venture between Lydon and developer Michael Whelan, which has made them good returns so far. Recent accounts showed after-tax profits at the venture rose from €8 million to €14.2 million in 2024. The partners extracted an €8.4 million dividend from the profits.
Kennedy Wilson
Led by: Peter McKenna, head of development
Pipeline: 3,400 homes
US landlord Kennedy Wilson has gradually grown its portfolio of 3,500 rental homes in Ireland through some large apartment projects it built in recent years.
The company delivered close to 500 apartments as part of its Coopers Cross development in Dublin’s Docklands and a further 500 units in the Stillorgan area at its developments, The Grange and The Cornerstone.
In recent months, the US landlord, which was recently taken private as part of a $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion) deal, revealed plans to almost double its portfolio in Ireland.
The company has formed a €2 billion residential joint venture with Dutch pension fund APG to develop 3,400 rental homes in Ireland. In all, 2,300 of these apartments will be built on the Player Wills and Bailey Gibson sites on Dublin’s South Circular Road and the former Clonliffe College lands. It has already begun construction on part of the Player Wills site, which will include a 19-storey residential tower.
Latest financials for Kennedy Wilson, which has $36 billion of assets globally, show its Irish operation has 3,500 apartments, with average rent in its portfolio at €2,500 a month.
Ardstone
Led by: Donal O’Neill, chief executive
Pipeline: 2,500 homes
Irish-owned real estate investor Ardstone has a portfolio of more than 3,000 residential units in Ireland, valued at around €1.4 billion. Based on recent deals, it is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.
The company has land capable of delivering 2,500 homes, which are at various stages of the development process.
Last year, it spent €25 million to acquire an eight-hectare, residentially-zoned site in Clondalkin with capacity for 1,400 homes. Ardstone chief executive Donal O’Neill said at the time it planned to start construction there in 2027.
The company also owns the Jesuit Order’s former Milltown Park campus in Dublin 6, which it bought for €65 million in 2019. Ardstone has faced a number of appeals and threats to legal challenge to its plans to build a large apartment scheme on the land.
Its latest plan to deliver 562 apartments on the site was approved by Dublin City Council in April, but has been appealed.
Ardstone was co-founded by O’Neill and veteran property investor Donal Mulcahy in 2005. Mulcahy exited the business in 2023.
Lagan Homes Ireland
Led by: Chris Carroll, managing director
Pipeline: 2,300 homes
The Dublin-based business was established in 2017 following the sale of Northern Irish building materials group Lagan in a £455 million (€527 million) deal.
Lagan Group has reinvested the proceeds into its development company in the Republic, which is owned by Kevin Lagan and his son Peter.
Lagan Homes Ireland, which has 2,300 homes in its pipeline, has forecast it will complete 380 homes this year across sites in Meath, Louth and Kildare.
The company has opportunities to grow its scale in the coming years after it received permission to build close to 500 homes on a 10-hectare site in Ballycullen, Dublin in February. The company also has another large landbank in north Co Dublin with capacity for 700 homes.
Lagan Group recently disclosed its Irish homebuilding business made €205 million in sales last year.
DywerNolan Developments
Led by: Edward and Ann O’Dwyer
Pipeline: 2,200 homes
DywerNolan Developments has made some bumper returns in recent years from its building business, which has delivered a number of large-scale housing estates and apartment blocks.
Recent accounts showed the company’s pretax profits rose 40-fold to €42.4 million last year after sales climbed from €38.5 million to €241.2 million. In that 12-month period, the owners of the company, Edward and Ann O’Dwyer, shared a €10.2 million pay package.
The O’Dwyer family’s development firm, which also lists Keith, Edwin, William and Aidan O’Dwyer as directors, was established 1971. Since then it has developed more than 9,500 homes in Dublin and its commuter belt in that period.
Based on its current portfolio, it has projects that can deliver 2,200 homes on sites in Dublin, including 800 apartments in Ballyfermot and 250 apartments on Swords Road, Dublin 11. It has 350 units at the planning stage on Santry Avenue, Dublin 9.
The accounts for DwyerNolan Developments also showed the company was sitting on a healthy cash balance of €85 million at the end of last year, so it has a large amount of capital to fund future projects.
Gem Construction
Led by: Martin Healy, managing director
Pipeline: 1,300 homes
Gem Group, which has residential and commercial building arms, was set up in 1978 and has delivered 5,500 homes over almost 50 years.
In the past decade, the scale of the group has grown significantly due to expansion of its housing output, with total revenues up from €50 million to €240 million.
A number of recent projects have driven this growth, including an €82 million development of 331 apartments for Dublin City Council and Tuath Housing on Malahide Road, a €180 million apartment project in Fingal called Churchfields and a €280 million phase of the 1,100 housing estate in Dunshaughlin called The Willows.
Data disclosed by Gem Construction shows it has a pipeline of close to 1,300 homes. It recently started construction on a 40-unit apartment block for Cluid Housing on Bannow Road, Dublin 7, and began more homes in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.
The company is led by Martin Healy, who has a controlling stake. Financial director Vincent Fay and construction director Kevin Fay have smaller shareholdings in the business.
Recent accounts show the three business partners shared the proceeds of a €26.3 million dividend in the year ending June 2025 from Gem Group’s combined residential and commercial building activity.
Dwellings Developments
Led by: Alan McClearn and Jonathan O’Connor, joint managing directors
Pipeline: 1,252 homes
Dwellings Developments is a relatively new residential development firm in Ireland and in a short space of time has built a sizeable portfolio of sites and projects.
The company was formed in 2019 as a joint venture between British private equity firm Matter Real Estate and a group of Irish businessmen led by former McInerney Holdings executive Barry O’Connor, who then stepped away from the company in 2024.
The company has focused on gathering together sites in regional areas, including Limerick, Cork and Dublin’s commuter belt, to develop housing estates. It currently has a pipeline of 1,252 homes.
Dwellings Developments sells around 150 homes a year at present and plans to scale up to 500 units annually in the coming years. It has delivered completed projects in Co Cork, at Garrán Ferney in Carrigaline and Port na Rinne in Ringaskiddy, and at Mungret, Co Limerick.
This year the Sunday Times reported that Matter Real Estate appointed KPMG to scope out a sale of its stake in Dwellings Developments.
