Buying a House in Ireland: The 12-Step Checklist
Everything to check before you bid, after sale agreed, and before you close — in the order that saves you money.
Step one takes about a minute
Enter an Eircode — 18 location checks, free snapshot first.
What should you check before buying a house in Ireland?
Check the location's official records first — flood history, radon, mica/pyrite designations, BER, planning, crime and sold prices — because they cost almost nothing and rule houses out early. Pay for the surveyor and solicitor once, on the house you actually buy. Then close carefully: contracts, insurance, costs. In short: check in cost order — data, then professionals, then paperwork. Twelve steps, three phases, below. Not sure what the data checks return? See a sample property report — a real, anonymised pack for a County Wexford home.
Before you bid
On every serious contender
Run the location's data checks
Flood history (OPW), radon (EPA), mica/pyrite designations, BER, planning applications, crime statistics, schools, broadband and more — 18 checks against 12 official sources, before you emotionally commit. This is the cheap step that stops you paying for expensive steps on the wrong house.
Run the Eircode checkarrow_forwardCompare sold prices, not asking prices
The Property Price Register records what comparable homes actually sold for. In a bidding market, the gap between asking and sold is where budgets break — anchor your maximum bid on evidence.
Think about flood insurance before you fall in love
Insurers decide flood cover address by address, and a restriction matters to your mortgage. If the data check shows flood history nearby, get a real quote before bidding, not after sale agreed.
How flood cover worksarrow_forwardWalk the area at different times
No dataset replaces standing on the street on a Friday night and a Monday morning. Traffic, noise, parking, neighbours — verify the intangibles in person.
Get mortgage approval in principle first
Sellers take bidders seriously when approval is in place. Central Bank lending rules cap most first-time buyers at four times gross income with a minimum 10% deposit — know your ceiling before you test it.
Sale agreed
On the one house you're buying
Instruct a solicitor
Conveyancing covers title, planning compliance, boundaries and contracts. Fees typically run €1,500–€3,000 plus outlays. Instruct early — solicitor delays are the classic reason Irish closings drag.
Commission the surveyor's inspection
A professional inspects the physical building — structure, roof, damp, defects. Typically €450–€799. The location data told you about the area; only a surveyor standing in the house can tell you about the house.
What a survey covers — and what it can'tarrow_forwardLine up buildings insurance — including flood cover — before contracts
Lenders require buildings insurance on mortgaged property, and a flood exclusion discovered at closing can unwind everything late and expensively. Name flood cover explicitly when you ask for the quote.
The flood-cover checklistarrow_forwardComplete the mortgage formalities
The lender's valuation, mortgage protection insurance, and your loan offer's conditions. Keep every document your broker or bank asks for moving same-day — rate expiry dates are real deadlines.
Before you close
The final stretch
Review what the contracts actually say
Planning compliance certificates, boundary maps, the BER certificate, and — for apartments — the management company's fees, sinking fund and house rules. Ask your solicitor to translate anything unclear.
New build? Snag before handover
A snag list catches construction defects while the builder is still obliged to fix them. Book the snagger for the week the builder declares the house ready, and re-inspect the fixes before closing.
Budget the closing costs
Stamp duty (1% of the price for most homes, with higher bands on higher values — Revenue publishes the current rates), Land Registry fees, and the seller's apportioned Local Property Tax. Have the figures from your solicitor in writing before drawdown.
Do step one now — it's free
18 location checks for any Eircode, snapshot in about a minute.
The checklist for your county
Buying a House in Ireland: FAQs
Three groups of checks, in cost order: first the location's records — flood history, radon, mica/pyrite designations, BER, planning applications, crime statistics, schools, broadband and sold prices (18 checks PropertyPack runs for any Eircode in about a minute, free snapshot first); then, once sale agreed, the professional checks — a surveyor for the building and a solicitor for the title; finally the closing checks — contracts, insurance including flood cover, and closing costs.
The solicitor checks the paperwork: title, planning compliance, boundaries, contracts. The surveyor checks the physical building: structure, roof, damp, defects. A data check covers the location's official records: flood, radon, planning pipeline, crime, prices. All three answer different questions — skipping any one of them is where expensive surprises come from.
Typical additional costs: solicitor's conveyancing fees €1,500–€3,000 plus outlays; a pre-purchase survey €450–€799; stamp duty at 1% of the price for most homes (higher bands apply on higher values — see Revenue for current rates); lender's valuation fee; mortgage protection insurance; and a €29 data check per property you're serious about.
After your offer is accepted, before contracts are signed. Surveying every house you bid on would cost thousands; that's why the order matters — run the cheap location checks on every contender, and pay for the surveyor once, on the house you're actually buying.
Recorded flood events at the address, a mica/pyrite-designated area (Donegal, Mayo and others — check the DCB designation), no BER or an F/G rating, dense planning activity that changes the area, and sold-price comparables far below the asking price. None is automatically a deal-breaker, but every one of them should change what you ask, what you offer, or both.
Under Central Bank lending rules, most first-time buyers need a minimum 10% deposit, with mortgage borrowing capped at four times gross income. Get approval in principle before you start bidding — sellers take bidders with approval in place more seriously, and it tells you your real ceiling.
The location checks apply unchanged — new estates can sit on flood-risk land or in high-radon areas like any other address. What changes: a snag list replaces much of the structural survey's role, HomeBond/structural warranties cover certain defects, and Help to Buy may apply. Timing also differs — you often go sale agreed long before the house physically exists.
Official data sourced from Irish government agencies
Twelve steps — the first one is free
Enter an Eircode: 18 location checks in about a minute, before you bid.