Mr. Conor O'Connell:

We have been involved in several different reports on apartment construction. Brown field development by its very nature is far more expensive than green field development and includes things such as the cost of demolition, waste disposal, material storage, getting labour into city centre sites and so on.

Apartment design standards are also an issue. There is no doubt that over the past ten to 15 years, the regulatory environment relating to the built environment has utterly changed, which has added to the costs. We have some of the best regulations in Europe in respect of apartment design standards, for instance, but that comes with a cost.