As Home of the Year returns to our screens for its 10th season, is it time to question our obsession with property porn?

The show featuring re-imagined semi-detached homes, renovation projects, restored period homes and new builds crowns the best property project in Ireland each year.

It is one of many property shows that viewers can choose from and on Newstalk Breakfast, broadcaster Sarina Bellisimo said there is nothing wrong with wanting to see how other people decorate.

"During the lockdown I think [property shows] really took off," she said.

"I think the show that we really got addicted to was Selling Sunset - that was like property porn to the extreme.

"There's something about us - you've got the 100 Days of Walking and all those people walking down their streets.

"You can't help but look in the windows and think, 'I wonder how they've set up their lounge?' - this is us".

This architectural new build in Co Antrim won the judges over last year. Image: RTÉ

Sarina said it's completely harmless behaviour.

"It's allowing us to go into people's homes and see how they do it," she said.

"You can't help yourself; you turn into a critic as well."

Sarina said there's one thing she can't get her head around – budgeting.

"The one that we all love is Dermot Bannon's Room to Improve," she said.

"All these couples walk in and they say we have a budget, and we all know what it's like.

"We struggle to find the extra €1,000, let alone €200,000, and all of a sudden these couples are like, 'We've only gone €200,000 over budget'".

'That feel-good element'

Sarina said she thinks the Irish obsession with other people's homes will continue.

"I don't think these are going anywhere," she said.

"Even before lockdown, we had the English shows like Location, Location, Location and A Place in the Sun.

"The ones I think we really truly connect with and I don't think are going anywhere [are] shows like Baz Ashmawy's DIY SOS: The Big Build Ireland.

"You get the community in to help a family adapt their house for whatever needs they require, and there's just that feel-good element to it as well".

The new series of Home of the Year starts tonight at 8.30pm on RTÉ One.

The judges will each score the homes out of 10, and the home with the highest combined score in each programme will go through to the final in April.

Main image: Home of the Year judges Amanda Bone, Hugh Wallace and Sara Cosgrove. Image: RTÉ