Sale Agreed Process in Ireland: What Happens Next

Quick answer: "Sale agreed" is the start of the legal process, not the end of the negotiation. Expect 8–12 weeks between sale agreed and getting the keys. You'll pay a booking deposit (refundable), appoint a solicitor, commission a structural survey, your lender will value the property, contracts get drafted and exchanged (when the 10% deposit is binding), and finally the closing day moves the money and the keys.

What "sale agreed" actually means

When the estate agent confirms "sale agreed", the seller has accepted your offer in principle. The agent will issue a written letter of sale agreed (or simply email confirmation) and take the property off active marketing. Nothing is legally binding yet. Either party can still walk away — see the gazumping discussion in How Property Bidding Works in Ireland.

What sale agreed does kick off:

• The agent stops accepting new viewings and new offers.
• You pay a booking deposit (typically 2–4% of the price, or €5,000–€10,000) to formalise your interest.
• Both sides instruct their solicitors. The conveyancing process begins.
• The clock starts on a realistic 8–12 week timeline to keys.

Worth doing on day one: ask the agent whether they run the sale on Progressa. It gives you, the seller and the agent one shared record of the sale. You get a private page, with no account or password, showing where the sale is, what it is waiting on and what happened last, plus a note on Monday if a week passes with nothing moving. It won't make a slow solicitor faster, but it does away with the weekly round of phone calls to find out whether anything has happened. If the agent doesn't use it, it is a reasonable thing to ask for.

Step 1: Pay the booking deposit

The estate agent will issue an invoice for a booking deposit, usually €5,000–€10,000 or 2–4% of the agreed price. The deposit:

• Is held by the estate agent in a client account (per PSRA Section 48 Client Moneys rules).
• Is fully refundable up until you sign contracts. The agent's own terms govern the refund mechanism — get them in writing before you pay.
• Counts towards the 10% contract deposit later; you do not pay it twice.
• Does not create a binding contract. The seller can still pull out, and so can you.

If you've never bought before, paying €10,000 into someone else's client account can feel risky. The PSRA strictly regulates these accounts — but always confirm the agent is on the PSRA Register of Licensed Property Services Providers before transferring funds.

Step 2: Instruct a solicitor

The single most important call you'll make this week. Your solicitor handles:

• Title checks — confirming the seller actually owns the property and has the legal right to sell.
• Planning searches — checking the property has planning permission for everything that's built on it.
• Local authority searches — checking there's no levy, charge, or compulsory-purchase order on the land.
• Drafting the contract with the seller's solicitor.
• Pre-contract enquiries — a long list of questions about boundaries, services, BER, easements, etc.
• Stamp duty filing and Land Registry application after closing.

Choose a solicitor with conveyancing experience specifically — general practitioners may underprice the work and slow you down. Expect quotes around €1,500–€3,000 + VAT + outlays for a residential purchase. Many solicitors run a fixed-fee model; some charge a percentage of the sale price.

Send your solicitor the agent's "sale agreed" letter and your AIP letter from your lender as soon as you have both.

Step 3: Commission a structural survey

A structural survey (or "engineer's report") is an inspection of the property by a chartered surveyor or building engineer. It's not a legal requirement but is strongly advised — your mortgage lender's valuation does not check for structural defects. The survey identifies:

• Damp, subsidence, roof condition, dry rot, electrical issues.
• Boundaries and shared services with neighbours.
• The expected lifespan of major components (boiler, windows, etc.).
• Any urgent repair the seller might be on the hook for.

Cost: typically €400–€800 depending on property size and location. The surveyor must be a member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) or Engineers Ireland.

Don't book the survey on the day of sale agreed — wait until the seller has signalled (via their solicitor) that they're moving the file forward, otherwise you risk paying €500 for a survey on a property that gets gazumped.

For new builds, you'd instead commission a snag list inspection close to handover — see New Builds vs Second-Hand.

Step 4: Lender valuation

Your mortgage lender will instruct their own valuer to confirm the property is worth at least the agreed price. This is a valuation only — typically a 30-minute visit, no roof inspection, no damp test. Cost is usually €150–€200 and is added to your closing fees. If the valuation comes in below the agreed price, the lender may reduce your mortgage offer, and you'll need to either find more cash, renegotiate with the seller, or walk.

Step 5: Conveyancing — what your solicitor is doing

Once the seller's solicitor sends the contract for sale and the title documents, your solicitor reviews everything and raises pre-contract enquiries. Typical questions:

• Are there any boundary disputes? Any shared services (driveway, septic tank)?
• Has the property had any structural alterations? Is there planning permission and compliance for everything built?
• Is there a Building Energy Rating (BER) certificate on file?
• Any outstanding Local Property Tax (LPT) or management-company arrears? (See Local Property Tax in Ireland.)
• For new builds: is the property registered with the Construction Industry Register Ireland (CIRI) and is there a Home Builders' warranty (HomeBond, Premier)?

The seller's solicitor responds in writing. This back-and-forth is typically what takes the most time — slow-responding seller solicitors are the most common cause of an 8-week deal stretching to 14.

This is also the stretch where buyers feel most in the dark, because the work is happening between two solicitors and you only hear about it second-hand. If the sale is on Progressa, your own page shows which stage the file is at and what it is waiting on, so you are not ringing the agent to find out.

While this is happening, your lender finalises your loan offer (the formal mortgage approval document, distinct from the AIP).

Step 6: Sign the contract

When all enquiries are satisfied and your loan offer is in hand, your solicitor will invite you in to sign the contract. At signing, you pay the balance of the 10% deposit — i.e. 10% of the price minus the booking deposit already lodged with the agent.

Example: a €400,000 purchase with a €10,000 booking deposit → at contract signing you pay €30,000 (€40,000 total = 10%).

You are now legally bound to complete the purchase. If you walk away after this point, you lose the full 10%. If the seller walks, they're in breach of contract and you can sue for specific performance.

Your signed contract is sent to the seller's solicitor. When the seller's contract comes back signed, the contracts are exchanged — this is the binding moment.

Step 7: Pre-closing — the gap between signing and keys

Once contracts are exchanged, a closing date is set. Typically 2–4 weeks later. During this window:

• Your solicitor requests mortgage drawdown — the lender transfers the loan funds to the solicitor's client account.
• You arrange buildings insurance to take effect on the closing date. This is a lender requirement (see Buildings Insurance).
• Your solicitor does closing searches — final title and judgement-mortgage checks against the seller and against the property.
• You arrange utility transfers (gas, electricity, broadband — see Broadband When Moving) and the moving truck.

Step 8: Closing day — money + keys

On the closing day:

1. Your solicitor sends the balance of the purchase price (price minus the 10% deposit already paid) to the seller's solicitor by electronic transfer.
2. The seller's solicitor confirms receipt and releases the signed deed of transfer and the keys.
3. Your solicitor collects the keys from the estate agent (or the seller's solicitor, depending on local practice).
4. You collect the keys, usually on the afternoon of closing day.

It's standard for buyer and seller to never meet. The agent and the two solicitors handle everything.

Step 9: Stamp duty + Land Registry

In the weeks after closing, your solicitor:

• Files the stamp-duty return with Revenue and pays the stamp duty from your closing funds. For residential property the rate is 1% on the first €1m, 2% on the portion from €1m to €1.5m, and 6% above €1.5m (with a higher rate on bulk purchases of multiple houses — see Stamp Duty).
• Lodges the deed with Tailte Éireann (the Land Registry / Registry of Deeds) to formally register your title. A straightforward transfer of registered land can come back within a few weeks when in order, but first registrations and cases caught in the registration backlog can take many months — meanwhile your solicitor holds an authenticated copy as proof of ownership.
• Sends you a closing statement detailing every line item.

Realistic timeline

For a second-hand property with a mortgage, the typical Irish timeline is:

For a cash purchase, you can shave 2–3 weeks because there's no lender on the critical path.

For a new build, the timeline depends on whether the property is "ready to occupy" or being built off-plan. Off-plan can stretch to 12+ months between sale agreed and keys.

Things that slow this down

• Seller's solicitor is unresponsive. The single biggest cause of delay. Your solicitor will chase, but there's no formal sanction.
• Title problems. Missing planning permission for an extension, an unregistered easement, a judgement mortgage you didn't know about.
• Bridging finance. If the seller hasn't lined up their next purchase, they may delay closing to coordinate the chain.
• Mortgage drawdown timing. Lenders can be slow to release funds; some require the loan offer to be re-issued if it expires before closing.
• Insurance. Closing won't proceed without buildings insurance in place from the closing date.

Costs to budget for (rough Irish figures)

For a fuller breakdown, see Hidden Costs of Buying a Home.

Key takeaways

• 8–12 weeks is realistic. Plan around it, not against it.
• The booking deposit is refundable, the 10% contract deposit is not. The binding moment is contract exchange, not sale agreed.
• Your solicitor matters. Choose one with conveyancing experience and a clear fee quote.
• Don't book the survey on day one. Wait until the seller's solicitor is engaged.
• Buildings insurance is non-optional. Have it in place the day contracts exchange.
• Get the sale onto one shared record. Ask the agent to run it on Progressa so you, the seller and the agent are looking at the same page and nobody is chasing for updates.

For what happens before sale agreed, see How Property Bidding Works in Ireland and Making an Offer on a Property. For the costs side, see Hidden Costs of Buying a Home and Stamp Duty.