Mr. Kevin James:

It was a good question. Comparing the soft costs between houses and apartments is like comparing apples and oranges. They cannot be compared. We must bear in mind that the published data are aggregated results and every project has unique characteristics in terms of how we deal with risk. That is what we do as surveyors – understand the brief, translate it, and procure and manage the design team in order to put together a budget for a particular project.

Regarding apartments, the funders’ requirements in terms of margins are dictated to the developer borrowing the cash. As such, the developer is limited and there is nowhere to go. Investors need a return on the money they lend developers to build residential developments.

On breaking down the costs, we cannot go near VAT. Certain recommendations have been made on VAT, levies and fees. We have noted these in our report. When a project is examined in isolation, there is a pro ratacalculation of what the constraints, characteristics of a site and the density of what a developer is trying to build contribute to soft costs. Sometimes, people get locked into translating numbers into the cost per unit, but the variance can be significant. If someone has to put millions of euro into remediating a zoned site and putting in significant foundations because the land is in a flood zone, it is a problem, which translates into the hard costs and vice versa, including higher professional fees.