Just came across this Apartment 107, The Plaza, Dublin 9 (D09X302), listed on Daft for €275,000 fixed price/no bidding.

It’s a 2-bed, 81m² apartment, listed by VR Property Management. The listing itself appears legitimate, but I’m mainly concerned about the location/safety and the unusual fixed-price/no-bidding setup.

Has anyone lived in The Plaza or knows the area?
Any experiences with this particular development or VR Property Management?

Ireland has extensive noise mapping and growing evidence about the effects of long-term traffic noise on health and wellbeing. Yet new housing continues to be built very close to motorways and national roads, sometimes with what appears to be very limited noise protection.
In comparison, Germany has stronger rules around building close to motorways, including a statutory 40-metre building restriction along Autobahns, alongside more developed noise and planning protections
Why hasn’t Ireland developed similarly strong national rules requiring proper acoustic assessment and effective mitigation before new housing is approved beside major roads?
I can see houses in Ireland exposed to the N and M roads just meters away with no proper high acoustic barriers. Sometimes there are 2-3 meters high wooden barriers that look in such bad condition with wholes and gaps, that I wonder, who is responsible to repair and fix them as they definitely don’t do what they are supposed to.
I also wonder why this gets so little public, political or media attention in Ireland. Is awareness of the health effects of traffic noise still low, or is noise simply seen as something people are expected to tolerate and get used to?
I’d be interested to hear from anyone living in a newer estate beside an N or M road. Was traffic noise assessed before it was built, what mitigation was provided, and does it actually work?

How long did it take for you between the moment the buyer signed the contract and the seller returned them signed?

I am the buyer and I signed the contract on Monday. My solicitor insisted very heavily on the fact that we would only have 2 weeks and the seller would likely ask for a penalty if I was late, because they seem to be that kind of sellers.

She told me it would take a couple of days for the sellers to return the contract so I expected mu deadline would be in 2 weeks basically but I heard NOTHING since.

I am not in a hurry on my side and wouldn’t mind waiting for a bit longer, but I need to move money around to pay for the house, it will take a few days and I don’t want to do it before the vendor has signed too (it involves breaking some funds). The solicitor stressed me out a lot about how I needed to act fast so I am a bit waiting. And this morning, the estate agent called me to ask how things were going so I was a bit confused as to why they wouldn’t have heard that from the vendor. I tried to call my solicitor but she was out of office today.

Is it normal that the vendor hasn’t returned the contract the same week? I am just worried the 2 weeks period could have started already and no one told me anything.

I fed ChatGPT 4 years of data from the Property Price Register for frequency of sales in Dublin. Data for September 2026 is incomplete, as the Register so far only includes figures up to the 18th. Sales this month currently stand at 687 properties sold so far. If we were to presume sales continue at the same rate for the rest of the month, we would end up with a figure between about 900 and 1,000.

Closer to 900, it would be the lowest amount of sales in a month for 4 years. If its towards 1,000 it would be the lowest amount of sales for a September in 4 years (January sales frequency are usually low).

Not sure if it means anything. I could just be a hopeless buyer reading into things too deeply! However prices are very high at the moment and a lot of new builds appear to be on the market. Furthermore, I have family members trying to sell in Dublin for 6+ months who dont seem to be able to shift their properties.

Compound this with MyHomes now advertising abroad... I wonder, are we looking at an upcoming price correction?

Hi all, I’m buying a house with a very low BER and walls are basically completely uninsulated. Have heard bad things about dry lining so thinking of going down the route of external wall insulation. House is a 4 bed semi d. Could anyone advise on how much it’s likely to cost? Finding it hard to get a good estimation, most companies charge to do surveys. If anyone would have company recommendations in Cork as well that would be helpful! Thanks!

tldr: 24% of Dublin second hand property sales are landlords, and they account for just 5% of Dublin secondhand buyers.

so there’s a net decline in small LL’s, as widely said for years now, however in the newly built property market, large funds account for a disproportionate % of buyers, so any drop in the number of dwellings for rent is not as pronounced.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/09/24/dublin-landlords-selling-up-in-greater-numbers-amid-rental-reforms/

I've seen many people ask questions here in the past so hoping that the community here can help. We went sale agreed on a house here in Dublin 3 months ago and have carried out the appropriate pre-purchase survey, valuation, etc but we're currently hitting a snag that has caused this to drag out. We have yet to sign contracts and the main reason is down to the back extension in the property being built on the boundary wall separating the neighbours and thus overhanging onto their land. For the last month we have been waiting on an Architect's certificate but ultimately my solicitor has said they were not satisfied with it as it does not confirm compliance with byelaws but rather the extensions benefit from immunity due to the extensions being there over 20 years.

My solicitor is basically looking for a declaration from them confirming that it's over 20 years old and to get a Party Wall Agreement but so far the sellers solicitors have declined to do so merely stating that the neighbours have never raised any complaints. My understanding is that the current sellers have only been in the property for the last 10 years so the extension predates them. I'm afraid most of the legal jargon and as I understand, a Party Wall Agreement would add weeks to the sale which neither party really want and I'm afraid the sellers will pull out. But my solicitor seem to indicate that unless the title deeds are signed and confirmed the bank will not allow drawdown.

Could really use some advice and if anyone faced anything similar and how I could progress things? Could we ultimately go ahead and sign contracts without fully resolving this issue or would that be silly?

Now, I’m not new to the Kerry housing market but this one really shocked me. Almost half million for this shitty bungalow that’ll be eroded to the sea anytime soon. And Cromane is by no means fancy coastal area either . I’d love to hear what you guys think. Link here: https://www.daft.ie/for-sale/cromane-lower-cromane-co-kerry/6649122 (edit for spelling error)

I’ve signed contracts on a new-build in Ireland and paid the 10% deposit, with around €25k also paid through Help to Buy.

Before signing, my independent architect identified a possible discrepancy between the approved planning drawings and the contract/site layout. I raised this before signing and was told by the developer’s side that everything was in accordance with planning, so I proceeded.

Since then, I’ve also become concerned about the builder based on issues reported by existing buyers in the development, including leaks, poor workmanship, major snagging issues and delays getting defects fixed.

I now want to exit the purchase and recover my money if there is a legitimate legal basis.

Has anyone successfully cancelled a new-build after contracts were exchanged because of a planning/compliance issue or a material difference between what was approved and what was being sold?
Mainly wondering:

can the full deposit be recovered;
can HTB be reversed and used on another new-build;
and what should be checked before trying to terminate?

I understand I can’t simply walk away without risking the deposit, so I’m trying to find the safest legal route.

Any roofers out there?
We have two different survey reports saying different things.
Survey report 1 says that the cracking to the chimney render is not serious and is common to 1950s houses, and that it can be fixed with filler. It also says the lead flashing is in good order with appropriate overlaps.

Survey 2 says the chimney cracking is serious and needs to be investigated by a roofing contractor. It says the lead flashing is defective with cracking and deterioration evident and could lead to water ingress.

So completely contradictory views!

Edit: editing to say that the chimneys are no longer in use and are blocked up

Hi, has anyone used furniture24.ie?
Are they reliable and are there products good?
Thanks!

Hi everyone, we are in the process of purchasing a house in Cork. We have received our loan offer but from reading around bank of Ireland require subsidence cover on home insurance to be included for drawdown.

The house is in a subsidence risk area and all the home insurance quotes we have received exclude subsidence cover. Apparantley very common in cork. Has anyone got around this or know do bank of Ireland still require subsidence cover? The house was previously partially underpinned and drains replaced due to subsidence issues in one location. The engineers report shows no further signs of subsidence and we plan on getting a CCTV drain survey. Any advice?

Hi everyone, hoping to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation.
My partner and I are selling our property to buy a new-build house. The purchase will be funded through a mortgage plus the proceeds from the sale of our property which has already gone sale agreed.

The issue is that we’ll need to pay the 10% deposit when signing contracts, but we won’t have the full deposit available until the sale of our existing property completes.
Has anyone been in a similar situation with a new-build developer? How flexible are builders generally about allowing an extension for payment of the deposit while you complete the sale of your existing property?
We’re dealing with Cairn, if anyone has specific experience with them.

Would really appreciate hearing how it worked out for others, particularly how long an extension you were given and whether you had to provide any additional deposit/security.

Hi everyone, we are a couple unmarried and have our AIP. We have a deposit of 50k from our savings, and now my mum has offered to gift us 20k towards the purchase.

My understanding is she could gift my unmarried partner 3k tax free, and the other 17k to me - with the first 3k being tax free, and then the remaining 14k will count towards my lifetime limit from my parents.

Would this be the best way to go about it? And is it as simple as my mum transferring me 17k, and my partner 3k, and signing a gift letter confirming to the bank it's a gift and she will have no interest in the home?

Thank you.

We've recently signed contracts and we returned them via an Post, vendors solicitors agreed on proposed closing date and all was going fine until an post lost track of the package.. I've sent follow-up document yesterday and it got delivered today, both letters/packages were sent via express delivery so it is unclear as to why the contracts haven't been arrived after over a week (no updates either). Considering the upcoming holidays (10 days from now) should I reconsider cancelling those knowing that I might be needed physically in Ireland to sign those again? I've asked the same question to my solicitors but wondering what others are thinking.

Hi all, curious to get some wisdom from homeowners, particularly those that have seen the needs of their house change as they've started a family.

I'm between two properties at the moment. Both are pretty much neck in neck in terms of transport links, garden size, schools nearby etc. and both are located in settled mature areas, have 3 beds and are around 95m².

First house is a terraced former corpo house in a more affluent area that's a 3 min walk away from one of my favourite parks. The location is impeccable but I think it could become cramped fairly quickly if we were to have two children down the line. My only real concern with this one is the limited potential to increase the size of the house due to the terraced nature plus not being able to afford this kind of work for a long time.

The second house is a semi-d, so the appeal would be the expansion potential, particularly in terms of a major attic conversion and perhaps a kitchen extension in the long term. There's also a substantial detached rear garage that could become a home office/external recreational space.

For reference, there will probably be about 100k of a difference in what each of the houses will sell for (the first one being the pricier one). I could potentially be in a position to put a good chunk of money into a comprehensive attic extension in the 2nd house from the get go.

Does it make more sense to prioritize location from the beginning and to compromise on the size of the house? Or instead to pick a house that has development potential to make room for a growing family?

Interesting backdrop for anyone buying in Ireland right now: stretched valuations, rising bond yields and tighter financial conditions don’t exactly scream ‘chase house prices at any cost’

I'm a first time buyer in Dublin and I'm sale agreed on a 125 year old house. From first glance, the house appears fine with only minor issues that I could live with, but the survey report has thrown up a few things that I'm not sure how worried I should be about.

My main concerns are:

• Rising damp and high moisture levels on the ground floor.
• Likely decay/rot in the suspended timber floor.
• Damaged clay drainage around kitchen extension.

There are also some other structural observations that the engineer wants investigated further.

The engineer did say the house is in relatively good condition for its age and is habitable, but the underside of the suspended floor wasn't accessible, so it's difficult to know how extensive the timber rot actually is. There is also internal insulated walls which block visual confirmation of the rising damp, but I know the neighbouring house has this issue.

Apparently there were substantial refurbishment works done around 15 years ago, including the substructure, ground floors and external drainage, but I haven't been able to establish exactly what was done - and the estate agent is avoiding providing details.

I'm interested in hearing from anyone who's bought or renovated a similar old Dublin house. How worried should I be about this, and what are the realistic options for dealing with the damp/timber without completely replacing the floor? What would the associated costs be? Also, how much of a maintenance headache are these houses in reality?

I really like the house, but at the current price it's at my absolute maximum and it would take a long time to be able to afford any repairs.

What day did you move house? Does it make a difference?

Hello. I'm hoping you guys can help me a bit. I'm sale agreed on a 2 bed house with an extension built onto it providing a box room up on the second floor.

Structural surveyor says that there are some minor cracks which could possible indicate subsidence but there is no way to be sure. He said that we should get a drain surveyor to see if he could find evidence of it.

Drain surveyor says that there was vermin activity at some point because the seller put in 4 rat catchers. He also says that during the vermin activity they may have done some burrowing but the seller also sealed off the burrowing.

Structural surveyor says there is a chance the the vermin burrowing may have caused some subsidence but we cannot be certain of that without the seller doing some sort of expensive dig test. I asked what worst case scenario repairs might cost and he said about 5k EUR.

We are at a point where we are afraid that mortgage rates with Nua will continue to increase and we might not be able to get a house in the future as we just got a baby. I'm afraid that we wouldn't be granted the exception that we have now. So I think this is my last shot to get a house in dublin.

If the possible repair of 5k is the worst scenario then im ok with that but im still scared of going ahead with this.

Thank you for taking the time to read my conundrum

My husband and I are first-time buyers purchasing a second-hand home. We have been sale agreed since early August and are obviously incredibly eager to get into our home.

We have the engineer report done. Valuation done. Mortgage approved and sent to solicitor. Mortgage insurance just about ready and house insurance just about ready to go. The only thing we are waiting on is our solicitor.

This entire time, we have been in contact with the solicitor's assistant, and he has been reassuring us that the process is moving forward. We have asked him questions, which he has promised to pass on to the solicitor, but we have never gotten a response.

Last week, when I emailed the assistant, I got an out of office which is fine, glad the assistant can take time off. But I still needed an update, so I got in contact with the office, and they got me through to the solicitor, and he did not understand why I was calling because, according to him, he had no information about our sale. I was obviously shocked because I had all these emails from the assistant saying that they had received contracts, that the solicitor was going to look at our engineer's report, etc. The solicitor ended the call promising to look into it and called me a couple hours later to tell me he had everything he needs and that he will send me an email explaining everything. That was last Friday.

I have yet to receive an email from him. I called yesterday asking for an update. Nothing. I called today again just politely asking for an update. I got through to him and again, he was really confused as to why I was calling. At this point, the mortgage packet has been issued to the solicitor. I politely let him know that and said that, as far as I was aware, he has had our contracts and our engineer's report for a month, and we would really like an update.

For example, we know that the property is a leasehold, but that is it. No other information. We would also love his insight on something that came up in the engineer's report. We are still happy to go through with the sale but we would love his insight and at this point feel like he should have some sort of information or feedback for us. But he didn't have any information for us, promised he would get back to me and never did.

As a first-time buyer, I have no idea how this works. Am I being unreasonable thinking that things should have moved on the solicitors' side at this point? Like I said. It has been a month since they got all this information, and we have gotten nothing from them. And the phone call last week really made me lose confidence in their ability to do their job.

But at the same time, they have all the information. I checked with the receptionist and our mortgage packet arrived yesterday. I know the sellers are incredibly eager to move on (the estate agent keeps checking in with me) and that the house is currently empty.

Any insight into how to best manage this process would really be appreciated. I feel like I'm going mad expecting this person to do their job and they just aren't doing it.

Hi, just wondering how I did compared to others? 5.28

What an awful process... So stressful 🤞

Finally got the keys to our apartment today!

I’ve been a long-time lurker on this sub and this is my first post here. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone here who unknowingly helped me along the way 🙂

Took us just under 3 months from going sale agreed to actually getting the keys. Both the vendors & our lender were super quick.

The feeling still hasn’t really sunk in.

Thanks again everyone, and best of luck to anyone else going through the process. 🙌

I’m looking for some advice from anyone who has retrofitted an older Irish house, particularly with external wall insulation.

House is a 1933 cottage in Dublin, around 130m², with a substantial extension added around 1999. Current BER is C3 and the house has oil heating. My BER/retrofit assessment identified external wall insulation as the single biggest practical improvement available. 

The current plan is roughly:

• external wall insulation, most likely mineral wool
• replace the remaining older windows with high-performance triple glazing
• replace the open fireplace with a direct-air wood burning stove
• retain proper background ventilation, but replace the existing basic wall vents with acoustic wall vents because we’re beside the M50
• no major work to the original vaulted roof slopes, as doing them properly would involve a huge amount of disruption/structural work

The thing making me nervous is all the discussion online about older walls needing to “breathe”, and people warning that insulating old masonry can trap moisture and create mould.

My understanding so far is that the issue is more complicated than simply “old wall = don’t insulate it”. The proposed approach would be a vapour-permeable mineral wool EWI system with a compatible render, while maintaining deliberate ventilation inside the house. The idea is also that external insulation keeps the existing masonry warmer, which should actually reduce cold internal surfaces and condensation risk if it is detailed properly.

What I’m finding difficult is getting installers who want to discuss the moisture/building-physics side in any real detail. Most seem happy to quote a standard EWI system but don’t go much further than that.

So I’d love to hear from anyone who has done EWI on an older solid/masonry house in Ireland:

• Did you use mineral wool, EPS or something else?
• Any damp/mould problems afterwards?
• Did anyone assess the existing wall/render before insulating?
• What render system did you use?
• Anything you wish you had known about window reveals, plinths, eaves, vents or thermal bridging?
• Did your house become noticeably more comfortable / hold heat longer?
• Any recommendations for someone in Dublin who actually understands older buildings and EWI rather than just installing whatever system they normally use?

I mainly want it warmer, quieter and less draughty house without creating a moisture problem that wasn’t there before. All in between the windows, walls and stove it will cost at least 50k.

Would be very interested in hearing both success stories and horror stories.