TJ Cronin

And what I'm seeing in the market with the last number of years, and more specifically recently, is that the lower the bar rating, so, you know, your property is going from, let's say, you know, down to G-rated,

they require a higher input from the purchaser's point of view.

So with that higher input requirement comes greater cost.

So for example, if a person is looking at buying a second-hand home that has a lower energy efficiency rating, it needs a greater amount of work.

It needs, you know, I suppose it needs more time.

It needs people to be able to acquire the benefit of a builder or tradespeople, which isn't easily attained in today's market.

The cost of that work,

is increasing dramatically over the years and continues to increase dramatically over the years.

It's hard.

Yeah, in actual fact, I spoke to a friend of mine on Saturday and he was saying that he's in a house that they want to add on a 22 square metre extension as a playroom and he can't get people to quote because they're just too busy.

And they said, like, you know, by the time, if I give you a quote now,

By the time actually I'm available by the end of the year, start of next year, that quote is obsolete.

It's obsolete within a couple of months.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Look, if as a first-time buyer you decide to buy a new home, the certainty in that, you're buying the property, you know the contract price and you're sure of the calibre and I suppose the

the condition of the property that you're buying, okay?

And it's future-proofed.

The added advantage of another advantage of new homes is that you're buying a property that's a high buyer rating, so you can qualify for greater, you know, green mortgages or eco-friendly mortgages from the various banks.

When you look at the second-hand properties, you're buying a property with the benefit of, you know, a surveyor's structural survey, but that is, you know, superficial.

You don't get into the