Ms Áine Myler:

It has been a factor for many in looking at the costings. What we find in project management with our quantity surveyor colleagues who were involved in the provision of the report with the planning and development surveyors is that the cost of delivery of suburban low rise apartments is very different because they are the closest to standard residential construction. The issue arises because it is taken out of that sector and brought into constrained sites such as city centre sites. The regulatory system for the development of apartments is significantly different from that for housing once they go above three storeys. The building is done in a very different way. There are significant fire safety regulations required to be met. There is a significant amount of common area space which is not present in houses because everything inside the four walls of a house is owned and occupied. There are significant additional regulatory factors in the delivery of medium rise apartments, including the cost of land and finance. One apartment cannot be sold as soon as the ground floor apartment is finished. The entire block has to be held and finished satisfactorily before anything can be sold in a scheme. The finance costs in developing apartment blocks are considerably different from those in developing housing. When the first house is topped out and the site works around it are finished, it can potentially be sold to fund the next phase of a scheme. Finance, land and regulatory frameworks have a very significant impact on the delivery of apartments compared with standard suburban models.