Nobody can give you a date, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What can be given is the shape, and the four things that determine whether your transaction sits at the fast end or the slow one.
The Four Factors
1. Whether the title is registered. A registered title with a folio is investigated far faster than unregistered property, where ownership must be proved by tracing the chain of deeds. This is the single biggest predictor and it is knowable on day one. 2. Whether there is a mortgage. A lender has its own conditions and its own internal timelines for releasing funds, and neither can be compressed. 3. Whether there is a chain. You close when the slowest party closes, and nothing your solicitor does affects a party three links away. 4. How prepared the seller was before going to market — and this is the one that matters most because it is the only one anybody controls. A seller with title, planning certificates, the Building Energy Rating and the Local Property Tax position assembled sells materially faster than one who starts looking when the buyer’s solicitor asks.
Where the Time Actually Goes
Almost all of it sits in one stage: between contracts issuing and contracts being exchanged. That is when title is investigated, requisitions are raised and answered, searches carried out, planning compliance checked and lender conditions satisfied — and from the outside, none of it is visible, which is why this is the period clients find most distressing. A straightforward registered-title sale with no chain and a cooperative other side moves through it reasonably quickly. Add a mortgage and it lengthens. Add unregistered title, a planning problem, an estate, or a boundary that does not match the folio map and it lengthens considerably. Two practical points. Silence is not the same as progress — you are entitled to know what is outstanding and who is being waited on, and any solicitor should answer that in a sentence. And an ambitious closing date that everybody privately knows is unrealistic causes far more difficulty than a slightly later one that actually holds, particularly where removal vans, mortgage drawdown and a school term are all being arranged around it.
If you are selling, the answer is largely up to you. The document checklist runs the questions a buyer’s solicitor will ask, and starting on the gaps now is the only real way to shorten a sale.
Want a realistic view for your own transaction? 01 5827148.
Richard O’Shea — Solicitor & TEP
Solicitor at Mary Molloy Solicitors, established 1981, with an office at 2 Rose Inn Street in Kilkenny city centre and a second office in Dublin. The firm handles residential and rural conveyancing across Kilkenny and the south-east — buying, selling, sites and farmland, family transfers, remortgages and transfers of equity. Richard is a TEP of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, which matters more in conveyancing than people expect: a great many property transactions in Kilkenny arise out of an estate, a family transfer or a succession plan, and those need both sides handled together. Nothing here is tax advice — stamp duty and any gift or inheritance tax questions belong with your accountant and Revenue. 01 5827148 · richardoshea@marymolloysolicitors.com · LinkedIn
General information, not legal advice. This website contains general information about conveyancing and property law in Ireland. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor—client relationship. Every transaction turns on its own facts — the title, the planning position, the lender’s requirements and the contract — and advice on yours requires a consultation.
Nothing here is tax advice. Stamp duty, Local Property Tax, capital gains on a sale, and any gift or inheritance tax arising on a family transfer are matters for your accountant or tax adviser and for Revenue’s own guidance. This firm does not advise on tax and states no rate, threshold, relief or condition anywhere on this site. Where a scheme such as Help to Buy or the First Home Scheme is mentioned, the eligibility rules and limits are set by Revenue and the scheme administrators and change from time to time — confirm the current position directly with them.
No valuation, survey or financial advice. This firm does not value property, does not advise on price, and is not a surveyor, engineer or mortgage adviser. A solicitor’s investigation of title is not a structural survey and is not a substitute for one, and no legal work will tell you whether a property is sound or whether the price is right.
Never both sides of the same transaction. The firm acts for buyers and, in separate transactions, for sellers — but not for both parties to the same sale. Conflicts are checked before any substantive discussion, which is why the first contact should identify the property and every party involved.
No timeline is promised. Nothing on this site states or implies that a transaction will close by any particular date. Closing depends on matters outside any solicitor’s control, including the other side, the lender, the chain, and third parties such as local authorities and Tailte Éireann.
Fees. Fees and outlays are agreed in writing with the client at the outset, in accordance with the Legal Services Regulation Act. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.