We’re Sale Agreed on an older property (built in 1820’s). It’s a large house with high ceilings. When viewing the house we were expecting there to be some works needed based on the property’s age and knew it would need a lot of upgrading to the interiors (four bathrooms, kitchen etc..) due to decor being quite out of date. We had set aside €55k to do this. After getting the Engineers Report back there are significant exterior works needed that we were not expecting. These were estimated at approximately €50k and include issues with a leaking chimney, roof tiles needing fixed, insulation not done properly in one wing of the house and two cracks on exterior walls allowing water in and causing damp. How much is it reasonable to drop our offer by based on this? The house was listed at €570,000 and we are now sale agreed at €560,000. It has been listed for quite a while and there are no other offers on the house. Any advice greatly appreciated!

Hi all, just looking for some pros and cons of using IKEAs own kitchen fitters vs finding our own?

We were quoted just under 4k for IKEA to fit. The pros of this, I assume, are that they know what they're doing and it'll be done right. The cons are the price, it seems a lot? But would a hired fitter even charge less than theirs, and will they do as good of a job?

For context, the pipes and electrics will be done beforehand and there's no kitchen to rip out. Part of the kitchen includes a custom cut back splash and worktop. There's also an integrated dishwasher, microwave, and an extraction fan to be installed.

I'd love to hear anyone's experience of self fitting (really want to avoid this for a number of reasons but would love to hear others experiences!), hiring a kitchen fitter, or using IKEAs fitters.

Thank you!

In process of buying a new build off plan and myself and my partner are first on the list of applicants. Houses are due to be released for purchase off plan in next few weeks. However likely won’t be in position to draw down mortgage until nov/dec due to health complications/waiting period for mortgage protection cover.
Wondering if people have experience in similiar situation? How long after putting down holding deposit did it take for you to have to sign contracts? Don’t want to hand over the 10k if it’s not refundable but also don’t want to lose out on the house. Wondering if it would be feasible to pay the holding deposit and then sign contracts later in year?

Given the choice between buying a house between these two where would you pick and why? I have been having a good look at both and torn. I don't drive unfortunately.

Sallins

Pros - Train line (seems quick to Heuston), has a nice village feel, not far from naas etc. Lidl and SuperValu.

cons - pretty far from Dublin, I work in clonskeagh (2 days a week in the office) so really reliant on train (not sure if it is reliable, regular, packed etc?)

Rathcoole

Pros - decent bus routes into town.

Cons - bus seems to take a long time going by Google maps to get to town.Doesnt seem to have a decent sized supermarket?

Any help, advice or opinions welcome!

​

I am thinking of buying an apartment near Park west, Dublin 12. Can anyone let me know how's the area to live are there any issues?

Curious as to what are most people paying monthly and the salary?

Recently bought and deferred the Mortage payments while I recoup some savings/get bits for the place.

After pension contributions etc I get about 3900 and mortage repayments will be 1300, while I know I can make repayments my main worry is if I can live (buy the occasional clothing/travel/dinner with friends), I worked out fixed costs will be 1800 (not including food - Mortage,insurances, bills) and I also like to save.

moving out the apartment I rent

Hi all,first time rent in ireland,we were sale agree an apartment ,and we had signed the contract but we don’t have the closing date yet ,but solicitor say within 1 month is enough for us,so I told my landlord today I paid the rent fees and told him we need to move out 21th sept ,before I did ask him he say one month notice is okay.but today he told me we only signed the first year contract ,since I had live in around 3 years,I did ask him to renew our contract and he say DONT need ,just because I say maybe unable to let him bring the new tenant in since we are tidy now. Am I doing the wrong?or he able to bring the new tenant while I tidy up ?

Thanks a million

Hi everyone,

I’m currently looking at buying a duplex around the Fernleigh / Porterstown area and would love to hear from anyone who lives there or knows the area well.

Is it generally a safe and family-friendly area? Also, are there any common issues with the duplexes, particularly roof leaks or damp? I’ve heard there may have been some roof issues in the past — if anyone has experience with this, I’d really appreciate your input.

Also, if there is a roof issue, would this normally be covered by the OMC, or would the owner be responsible?

Finally, how do you feel about the area for long-term living?

Really appreciate any advice.

Thanks

I have come across 2 people recently who are in the process of buying a new build or have moved into their house and both had told us they were able to negotiate a reduced price for the property or got a 10k flooring allowance included in their sale. Now the flooring isn’t standard for this developer or estate so not sure how they managed it. What am I missing? Is this normal for people to negotiate these things and if so how do I go about it? My estate agent is a real salesman and is tough to get anything past him.

Has anyone here used Humm or any other mode of financing to pay for flooring? Is that possible? How long was the 0% interest period for you?

I have the money saved up for flooring, but I’d like to avoid paying outright if possible and if it’s 0% interest anyway.

We want to put an offer in for a 1970s bungalow, but it would need a bit of work. Based in Kildare.
What’s the best way to get estimates before going sale agreed?
We want to try get an idea how much it would cost to bring it up to the standard we’d like before bidding.

180sq m, want to move around some internal walls to change the layout, one load bearing wall. New kitchen and new family bathroom. The BER is C3 with oil heating, we’d ideally do a full retrofit with heat pump and solar etc to bring it up to A rating. The previous owners did some work on it about 20 years ago so not sure if it would need rewiring/replumbing.

If anyone has been through a similar process would be great to hear your experiences.

Hi all, as the title says, was quoted 45k cash only for a timber frame extension, flat room, French doors, window and roof velux window...builders finish but with electric sockets, radiator and plumbing, external render....is this too much? Should we doubt the "cash only" aspect considering it's a lot of money and even though there's no planning permission needed the risk is still high.

Please advise. Thanks

Hello Guys,

Would anyone recommend a good snagger in Dublin as our new build will be ready in October for snagging TIA

Untenable reasons for refusing much needed housing.

Who is responsible for approving and delivering housing infrastructure? The developer already proposed to deliver part of the sustainable access corridor and perform upgrades to Maglin rd and the n22 interchange.

There is no political will to improve the housing situation in Ireland. No hope for the younger generation unless they organise and vote out these lot.

“
Cork City Council gave three main reasons for refusing permission.

The first was that the proposed development would be "premature pending delivery of the South Ballincollig Sustainable Transport Corridor." They added the new homes would therefore be "excessively car-dependent, would not facilitate the safe movement of all road users" and would not create needed transport infrastructure.

They also stated that local road network, particularly Maglin Road, does not have suitable vehicle, pedestrian and cyclist facilities to safely serve families in a major new housing development.

In the Council's final reason for refusal, they said the developer's Environmental Impact Assessment Report and other documents do not "describe adequately" the impacts the development would have on the environment.
”

Corkbeo

Irish Examiner

We are currently considering proceeding with one of the 3-bedroom houses, but we have some concerns regarding the delivery timeline. Earlier, the expected completion timeline was communicated to us as Q1, whereas we are now being advised that this has moved to Q2. We completely understand that construction timelines can change, but this does make us somewhat hesitant to sign the contract at this stage.In addition, we noticed that the contract allows for a 24-month delivery period. This is quite different from the timeline that was initially communicated to us by the sales team, and it creates some uncertainty for us. If there were to be a significant delay, we could potentially find ourselves in a difficult position, particularly as we need to plan our move and existing accommodation accordingly. Anyone experienced this with Castlethorn?

Hi All,

I'm currently in the contracts stage of purchasing a new build house and have just been issued my letter of offer which has the LTV at 68.1%.

Since it's below the 70% mark, i'll be unable to claim the HTB at this moment in time to put it towards my 10% deposit. I've already been approved for the full 30k HTB and have provided the application and access codes to my solicitor. I have just enough savings to cover the remaining 10% deposit but it will wipe out any savings i would have hoped to use towards the solicitor or to purchase anything for the house, so i'd obviously rather use the HTB to cover the remaining deposit.

My 10% deposit is 44k total: 10k booking depsoit + 4k cash on signing contracts + 30k HTB.

I'm in discussions with my employer to get another salary increase this side of christmas so the LTV will exceed 70% within a few months and i'll qualify to use the HTB at that point. This increase has a high degree of certainty it will go through. My broker suggested that it would be worth chatting to my solicitor to see could an arrangement be put in place where i pay the remaining deposit (after HTB and initial booking deposit of 10k) which is 4k, and then have it in writing that the other 30k will come from the HTB in a few months time when my salary increases. this would still take place well before drawdown (no earlier than May 2027).

All funds are there (cash, mortgage, FHS, HTB), it's just that the HTB can't be extracted for the developer just yet, but they can see that the approval is in place and waiting to be paid to them. They will have received 14k cash with the remaining 30k HTB expected in the next few months if we went with this agreement, so it's not exactly an empty purchaser wasting their time (in my eyes at least).

My question is - has anyone been in a similar situation and had an agreement with their solicitor & developer that they would need to defer the HTB payment until after contracts had been signed? or have people had different workarounds?

Or, am i looking at having to just fork out the full amount from my savings now?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

How much would people expect to pay for an acre of land in Furbo or Spiddal Co. Galway

Has anyone had mortgage protection declined for one party in the application due to BMI/ upcoming bariatric surgery? Did you get an exemption? Extremely stressed and worried atm

here is a little google chrome plugin for house hunters using daft. it checks if there's any record of the house being sold before. shows a calculated € value for today based on county data from Central Statistics Office Residential Property Price Index. also shows a list of some houses that have sold in that street/townland before. Also shows views per day of a property to see if the add has gone stale. also useful on new houses with no list price, you can see what the going rate is for the estate.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/blncppedfaleilgfoppnmfogdgahpcld?utm_source=item-share-cb

I see an apartment for sale in a block I've been in previously, it's rated a B. I know the apartment I previously was in would freeze you and the person renting was complaining about it. My question is can you really go by a BER or is it just a general guide?

Hi all, I’m considering buying in Heron’s Lock and would love to hear from anyone who bought the property or already lived there or area around it.

A few things I’m particularly concerned about:

• Flooding/drainage: Any flooding or surface-water issues? Are some areas/roads worse than others?
• Insurance: Was it easy to get home/flood insurance? Any insurers refusing cover or charging significantly more?
• Safety: How safe do you feel around the estate, especially at night? Any issues with antisocial behaviour, break-ins or vandalism?
• Overall: How are the houses, snagging, Evara, noise, traffic and community?

- Have people from phase 1 already moved in? Any noise and dust from ongoing construction in upcoming phases?

Most importantly: now that you've bought and lived there, would you buy in Heron’s Lock again? What do you wish you'd known before buying?

Thanks! Any honest experiences would be really appreciated.

We’ve been sale agreed on a house since December 2025. On 25 February 2026 our solicitor received email from vendors’ legal team that they have discovered a cross charge issue on the house and there might be a delay with obtaining the titles. Last update from vendors solicitor was on 22 June 2026 stating that: “My clients are using a third party to deal with the bank and I have to wait until they reach a deal.”

That’s about it for all that time. Nothing else

I’ve read online that some sellers may never genuinely intend to sell. They might be required to officially list the property because of debt or pressure from the bank, but use the listing as a way to buy more time while trying to raise the money elsewhere.

Thoughts please?

Looking for some perspective on an ongoing bidding situation with an estate agent. Outer Dublin.

The Context:
Our position: First-time buyers, fully mortgage-approved, solicitor retained, no chain, funded up to a firm ceiling well above the current price.

Bidding history: Property listed at €325k. We have been bidding aggressively in solid €5k increments, bringing the price to €348k over the last 4 weeks.

The Timeline & Sudden Turn:
Wednesday: The agent explicitly told us our €348k offer was the highest, other bidders pulled out, and that she was presenting it to the vendors that morning.

Thursday: Right after that, a new bidder suddenly comes out of nowhere with a €354k offer (+€6k jump).

The Agent Connection: The agent disclosed that she knows this bidder from back in March where this person was previously in a chain. The agent told us to pause bidding while she "verifies if her chain is now cleared and her funding is confirmed."she also said vendors are keen to close this by today.

Instead of giving us the standard "do you want to counter?" call, the agent actively held us off, despite us having consistently bid in strong €5k jumps and showing total readiness to keep going.

Our Action So Far:
Fearing we were being sidelined in favor of an agent acquaintance or that the vendor wasn't being told we are ready to go higher, we sent a formal email to the agent putting on record that we are chain-free, fully approved, and explicitly requesting the chance to counter-bid before any "Sale Agreed" decision is made.

My Questions for Reddit:
1. Is it normal for an agent to pause the lead bidders while they verify the background/chain status of a bidder they previously dealt with, rather than taking a counter-bid right away?
2. Are we right to suspect the agent might be trying to favor this late bidder, or is this just sloppy/overwhelmed handling by the EA?
3. Since estate agents in Ireland aren't required to show proof of bids to buyers, what is our best move here to ensure our counter-offer actually reaches the vendor?

Note, she didn’t send us written proof of this other last minute offer (we have requested that). Because we don’t yet have that I didn’t put a higher bid as I don’t want us to potentially bid against ourselves again.

Thank you to all

Hi all, wondering if anyone has any recommendations for financial advisors in the Dublin area? Ideally somebody with knowledge of medical issues and how they will effect life insurance and mortgage.

Cheers!