When Siobhán Lam sat in front of the cameras for the very first series of Home Of The Year back in 2015, she was just another homeowner hoping the judges might be kind about her wallpaper choices.

They weren’t especially. She didn’t win.

But what happened next speaks volumes about how this RTÉ property show has morphed into a money-spinning juggernaut over the past 12 years.

Frustrated by the lack of unique homeware on the Irish market, a frustration born directly from trying to dress the home she had just shown on national television, Lam launched a shop.

She called it April And The Bear, painted it a shade of flamingo pink so striking it became a Dublin destination in its own right, and built it into one of the city’s most beloved interiors boutiques, complete with a design studio.

This is a snapshot of the story of what Home Of The Year has become: Ireland’s equivalent of The Great British Bake-Off. 

A warm, wholesome, much-loved television institution that, entirely by accident, has been minting careers, businesses and social media empires for more than a decade.

With the series 12 finale having just aired, a bittersweet occasion marking the final episodes of the much-loved late judge Hugh Wallace, the show’s indelible imprint on the Irish cultural and, more recently, social media landscape is undeniable.

But the show’s success could have unintended consequences, that estate agents across Ireland have been discreetly chattering about for years – could appearing on Home Of The Year actually be driving up Irish property prices?

The most documented example involves a quiet Victorian terrace in Dublin’s Dolphin’s Barn called Rehoboth Place, a street most Dubliners had barely heard of before the 2017 series of Home Of The Year.

The owners of number 21 appeared on that series, showing off their smart, contemporary renovation. 

The national coverage was immediate. The following spring, they brought the property to market. They had originally paid €360,000 for it. They listed it at €545,000. It sold for its full asking price.

A neighbour on the same street subsequently sold for €630,000, with a property website noting that Rehoboth Place had ‘really come to homebuyers’ attention’ through its Home Of The Year exposure. 

This €270,000 uplift on the original purchase price is believed to be generated, in significant part, by one Tuesday night television appearance.

Rehoboth Place is by no means an isolated HOTY occurrence. In fact, a pattern, of sorts, has repeated itself across the show’s history. 

Multiple contestants have used their appearance as a platform to sell at a premium, with a national audience of admiring potential buyers pre-sold on the property before it even hit the market. 

Property journalists have noted the phenomenon repeatedly: Home Of The Year effectively functions as the most cost-effective marketing tool in residential property.

Not everyone takes the money. Series 7 winner Jen Sheahan was characteristically direct when asked if she’d consider selling her celebrated Dublin artisan cottage after winning in 2021.

‘I’ve gotten a few notes in my letterbox asking if I would,’ she admitted. ‘But I’m too emotionally attached to it.’

The question now hovering over the most recent winners, 2026 champions Lorcan Burke and Adrian Sharpe – whose botanical Kildare forever home wowed the judges this week – is how long before inquiries begin landing on their doorstep?

In Ireland’s over-heated property market, where nationwide prices rose 6.95 per cent in 2025 alone, the HOTY bounce could be having a real-world financial effect.

The property story is just one dimension of a much bigger phenomenon. Home Of The Year has become something nobody planned – a career maker and life-changer.

Ciara Denvir, a barrister from Belfast, won series 5 in 2019 after she and her husband Peter Boyle lovingly restored their Co Antrim home. 

The national attention tipped the balance. She hung up her wig, retrained and launched a full-time interior design practice. 

Then, in 2025, she walked into Punchestown Festival for the very first time and won Best Dressed Lady. 

Two national competitions. Two completely different worlds. One woman who used a television appearance as a springboard and never looked back.

Series 11 winner Amy Martin’s story is equally compelling. 

A nurse who quietly retrained as an interior designer, she bumped into judge Hugh Wallace at the Ideal Homes Show. 

He encouraged her to apply. She got back on the train and said: ‘We’re doing it.’ Her Brady Bunch-inspired 1970s Limerick house enchanted the judges. Wallace called it ‘a brilliant winner’.

But the detail that most illuminates the show’s remarkable internal culture is that Amy cited Siobhán Lam’s journey as direct inspiration for applying. 

She adored Lam’s shop and was thrilled to hear Lam was joining as a judge. The ecosystem is eating itself, in the very best possible way.

What all of these stories share is something the producers of Home Of The Year almost certainly never planned – the show has created a permission structure.

It has told a generation of Irish people that their instincts about their homes are valid, their taste is worth sharing and that there is a real audience – and in some cases, a personally enriching market – for what they do.

The Great British Bake-Off made amateur bakers believe they could open bakeries. Home Of The Year has done something far more wide-ranging – its alumni have exploded across interior design, retail, social media, fashion, horticulture and the Irish property market itself.

Series 12, which has just concluded, carries an extra layer of poignancy. Hugh Wallace, the show’s only ever-present judge on every panel since the very first episode in March 2015 and the beating heart of the show itself, died before it aired.

His fellow judge Siobhán Lam, the woman whose losing appearance in Series 1 launched an entire career, described promoting it as ‘bittersweet’.

It is, she says, ‘a tribute to Hugh and what he really loved to do’.

What Wallace built over 12 years, almost entirely without intending, was something more than a television format. He built a launchpad.

He created a quintessential Irish TV institution. And the careers, businesses, Instagram empires and property windfalls it has launched show no signs of coming back down to earth.

THE HOTY ALUMNI: CONTESTANTS WHO KEPT THE CAMERAS ROLLING

Beyond careers and property prices, a growing army of Home of the Year contestants have built significant social media followings. The show’s official account (@rtehomeoftheyear) has 55,000 followers , but its alumni, collectively, command many times that.

Caroline Hassett (@ahousebythetrees), 42,000 followers

Her award-winning self-build in Co. Tipperary is the definitive reference point for the ‘Modern Farmhouse’ aesthetic in Ireland , a look that has influenced thousands of new builds across the country.

Kieran McCarthy (@kierankmc), 35,400 followers

Professional builder and presenter of RTÉ’s Cheap Irish Homes and Heat My Home. His dual television and social media presence makes him one of the most recognised faces in Irish renovation.

Áine Garrett (@ainegarrett_), 33,200 followers

Home stylist and content creator blending fashion-forward interior design with real family life. A highly engaged, growing audience.

Victorian Rathmines / Kate O’Driscoll (@victorianrathmines), 29,900 followers

Kate O’Driscoll’s meticulous documentation of a major period restoration in Dublin’s Rathmines is regularly cited in Irish design publications. The gold standard for Irish period renovation content.

Pete the Builder / Peter Finn (@pete_thebuilder) , 23,100 followers

Lead builder on RTÉ’s Home Rescue and a regular property contributor across Irish media. Practical, no-nonsense, and trusted.

House by the Whitethorns / Sarah (@housebythewhitethorns), 22,500 followers

Scandi-style rural living and bungalow renovation in the West of Ireland, documented with a warmth and honesty that has built a fiercely loyal following.

Katrina Carroll (@vintageirishkat), 22,000 followers

Her colourful, maximalist, vintage-inspired HOTY home became one of the show’s most-shared images , a joyful, full-colour rebellion in a world of grey walls and pendant lights.

Kelly Connor (@kellyconnor_millhouse), 10,000 followers

A rising star in the Millhouse restoration niche, blending industrial and homely design. One to watch.

Toni & Fionán (@tonisfionanshome), 12,000 followers

Their sustainable Co. Kerry self-build from the 2024 series attracted a community around conscious, creative homebuilding.

Esther & Robyn (@estherrobynhome), 9,500 followers

The 2024 HOTY finalists specialising in modernising traditional Dublin terrace houses , a challenge faced by hundreds of thousands of Irish homeowners.

Claire & Seán Fox (@claireandseanfox), 8,000 followers

Their transformation of an 1860s Tipperary shop into a contemporary home was one of the standout stories of the 2025 series.

Amy & Eoin Martin (@the_house_at_no_1), 7,500 followers

The 2025 HOTY winners are already building an audience around their energy-efficient 1970s retrofit. Expect this to grow substantially.

BEYOND HOTY: Ireland’s biggest interiors influencers

Jennifer Wrynne (@jennifershomeinterior), 436,000 followers

One of Ireland’s most-followed home accounts (above). Also one of the country’s most prominent hat designers , her millinery has graced Galway Races and beyond. Nearly half a million followers built around DIY, garden and nature-inspired luxury décor, with almost no mainstream press profile. The most intriguing figure in Irish home content.

Cheap Irish Houses / Maggie Molloy (@cheapirishhouses), 232,000 followers

The RTÉ Cheap Irish Homes presenter has tapped into something close to a national obsession , the increasingly desperate search for affordable property in a market where prices rose nearly 7% in 2025 alone.

Gráinne Gillett (@grainnegillett), 232,000 followers

A midwife who retrained as an interior designer, Gráinne bought a rundown Victorian cottage in Dublin’s North Strand and almost by accident became the poster woman for a new generation of Irish DIY enthusiasts. A quarter of a million people have watched her take sledgehammers to walls.

Joanne McNally (@joannemcnally) , 180,000+ followers

Comedian and My Therapist Ghosted Me podcast co-host who has become one of the fastest-growing voices in Irish home content almost as a side effect of her personality. Proof that a distinctive voice matters as much as a beautifully staged room.

Crazy House Prices / Ciarán Mulqueen (@crazyhouseprices), 125,000 followers

Six-figure following built on one simple proposition: telling the truth about what Irish property actually costs. The go-to account for property market analysis, regularly appearing in national news coverage of the housing crisis.

Laura-Ann Barr (@all.thats.pretty) , 80,000 followers

Northern Ireland’s most distinctive interiors voice. Queen of the ‘grandmillennial’ style , the joyful, floral, maximalist counter-revolution against a decade of grey walls. She has shifted the Irish interiors conversation decisively away from the safe and the neutral.

Houses to Restore / Shay Lally (@houses_to_restore), 70,200 followers

Quantity surveyor who built 70,000 followers by doing one thing brilliantly: telling you what the beautiful renovations you see on television actually cost. Essential reading.

Eoin Reardon / Pint of Plane (@eoinreardon_), 580,000 Instagram / 3.4 million TikTok

The most extraordinary story in Irish home content. Dropped out of a UCC commerce degree because he kept disappearing into the family shed. A TikTok of himself restoring a razor went viral in 2022. He now has 3.4 million TikTok followers and 1.6 million YouTube subscribers. He builds currachs and carves furniture by hand from a shed in Crossbarry, Co. Cork. More than half his audience is American, most claiming Irish heritage. A global ambassador for Irish craft, with no television appearances required.

Catherine Carton / Dainty Dress Diaries (@daintydressdiaries), 100,000 Instagram / 300,000 YouTube

Started as a vintage fashion blogger in 2014. Was made redundant in January 2021. Went full-time as a content creator, built her YouTube community to 300,000, published two books on home crafting with The O’Brien Press. From vintage dress blogger to redundancy to bestselling DIY author. Nobody saw it coming.

Siobhán Lam / April and the Bear, Now Home of the Year judge

The full-circle story that began this entire feature. Lost in Series 1 in 2015. Launched a flamingo-pink homeware shop from the frustration. Built it into a beloved Dublin institution with a full design studio. Returned to the show a decade later as a judge. The Home of the Year ecosystem in one extraordinary biography.