CEO Outlook: Managing Ireland’s largest portfolio of private rental property with Margaret Sweeney, I-RES REIT Plc

 Irish Residential Properties (I-RES) REIT is Ireland’s largest private residential landlord, providing homes for over 8000 people. However, the company’s CEO, Margaret Sweeney, does not particularly like the term ‘landlord’. As she tells host Richard Curran, “we’re neither Lords nor do we own that much land”. 

In a country where 95% of residential landlords own one or two properties, the I-RES REIT business model is a very new concept - one that Margaret believes is helping to solve one of Ireland most significant issues. Today’s tenants are choosing to live very different lifestyles to those before them, and I-RES REIT is providing the type of accommodation and service that suits their needs. 

Before joining I-RES REIT Margaret Sweeney held the position of CEO at Postbank Ireland and before that, at Aer Rianta (now DAA). She has also been a member of the board of organisations including Dalata Group, Teagasc, DCU, and SOLAS. In this episode of The EY CEO Outlook podcast series, Margaret joins Richard Curran to talk about leadership, diversity in business, and the future of housing in Ireland. They discuss topics including:

·        Why the provision of adequate, affordable housing is such a problem, and what Margaret believes might solve it

·        Why constructing higher apartment buildings isn’t the silver bullet many believe it to be

·        The rapidly evolving nature of how young Irish people want to live, and the effect it is having on the property and rental market

·        Margaret’s extensive experience of doing business in Russia, and what she learned about cross-cultural relations

·        Margaret’s admiration for innovative State bodies 

·        The innate differences between how men and women do business – and how she tries to encourage young females to compete.