What impact will BER have on Irish householders?
The BER requirement will impact on an estimated 170,000 sale or rental transactions per year. BERs will mean that anyone buying a house will be able to check the energy performance of the house and get an indication of the annual running costs. It will allow people to take energy costs into consideration in their purchasing decisions. This is becoming more and more important as energy costs are increasing all the time. BERs will allow house hunters to compare the energy performance of two different houses on an equal scale. It will allow you to compare two houses that on the surface appear very similar such as two 3-bed semi detached dwellings or equally two very different houses, such as a 2 bed apartment and a 5 bed house. BER will ultimately improve energy awareness in the property market both for home buyers and developers and this awareness can be expected over time to place a somewhat higher value on more energy efficient properties. In time, it is likely that householders who ha
