This guide is designed to help you identify, and hopefully avoid, potential delays in selling your property. For most residential property sales, we estimate the average timeframe is about four to five months. However, for some property sales there can be delays and for a few, those delays can be significant.

Selling or buying a property is not always straightforward or quick. For most people it is the biggest purchase they will ever make, and the process is designed to protect them and their money. 

Over the years, other protections have been built into the process for selling property including measures to prevent money laundering and a requirement to collect outstanding taxes on behalf of the Revenue Commissioners.

All of this has made the process more complicated and, in some cases, there may be as many as 15 parties involved in the transaction. Those involved range from the seller and the buyer to multiple financial institutions, government agencies such as local authorities, the Revenue Commissioners and the Probate Office.

Some of the process has become digitised but, unfortunately, much of it remains paper based. While there are already projects in place to develop e-Conveyancing and e-Probate, these will take time. 

The publishers

About the Law Society

The Law Society of Ireland is the professional body of the solicitors’ profession in Ireland. With representative, regulatory, and educational functions, the Law Society delivers high-quality legal education and training, and encourages and supports the highest professional standards. The Law Society places significant emphasis on civic engagement, law and justice reform, supporting local community initiatives, and driving diversity and inclusion within the profession. The Law Society is committed to providing the highest standard of service to its growing membership, students, stakeholders, and members of the public.

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About the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI)

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) is the independent professional body for Chartered Surveyors working and practising in Ireland. It administers the register of Building Surveyors and Quantity Surveyors and is named in the Building Control Act 2007 and it works in partnership with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the pre-eminent chartered professional body for the property, land and construction sectors around the world. Members of the SCSI include auctioneers, estate agents, valuers and building and geomatics surveyors who are some of the main professions engaged in the property buying and sales process.

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