{"id":289436,"date":"2026-02-09T22:28:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289436\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T22:28:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:28:47","slug":"odds-stacked-against-the-buyer-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289436\/","title":{"rendered":"odds stacked against the buyer \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been much attention paid to the barriers facing those trying to buy their first home or move house in Ireland due to the lack of supply on the market. However, there are other issues, too, causing problems for potential purchasers, which often cause delays, lead to additional cost and create a lot of stress. The rules of the game too often seem stacked against buyers who face enough problems from trying to find a home they can afford in a dysfunctional and under-supplied market.<\/p>\n

A new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) <\/a>highlights a lot of the key shortcomings in the purchasing process. Buyers are often tempted to overbid in housing auctions, do not understand their rights and face enormous delays in areas like conveyancing. <\/p>\n

There is no one fix available. But progress can \u2013 and should \u2013 be made. The ESRI report, through an experiment with 800 adults, identified that for a variety of reasons people tend to bid more in the kind of open auction systems often used by estate agents and online platforms than they would in a sealed bid, thus driving prices higher. While many buyers favour an open and transparent system, there are also advantages in one where all sides put in sealed offers at the same time.<\/p>\n

Buyers were also found to be unaware of many of their rights and responsibilities. Only one in five realised that an estate agent can continue to market a property even after it has gone \u201csale agreed.\u201d This in itself, of course, gives the seller the clear advantage of having a deal in the bag while looking for a better one and should be outlawed. Most buyers also do not realise that they can pull out before a contract is signed.<\/p>\n

There are clearly information needs here which the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) might reflect on, though it has published a useful online guide for buyers. Its advocacy work has also previously pointed to the long delays in conveyancing, which typically takes 16 weeks or more. <\/p>\n

This can be addressed in part by a requirement on sellers to have important information such as the residential property tax status and any relevant planning matters ready before the process starts, as well as the location of the title deeds. The CCPC has also previously argued for a new conveyancing profession to introduce competition into this area of the market and speed transactions. Given the tardy performance of many solicitors, this is worth considering.<\/p>\n

The advantage in the property market lies firmly with the vendor, given the lack of supply and high prices. This makes action to combat the information shortfall and unfair practices hampering buyers all the more important. In making progress, Ireland can learn from the clearer systems in place in some other European countries, which stand in contrast to the Irish free-for-all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been much attention paid to the barriers facing those trying to buy their first home or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16860,1251,9793,138766,138767,12449,2085,4632,1328,97494,807,61,113715,60,138768,17270,13742,12455,2411,138769,43,76829,30224,25034,4310,12457,7119,11437,12549,4898,25796],"class_list":["post-289436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-background","tag-building","tag-buy","tag-buy-home","tag-buy-house","tag-concept","tag-entrance","tag-estate","tag-home","tag-home-loan","tag-housing","tag-ie","tag-interior","tag-ireland","tag-key-chain","tag-keyring","tag-loan","tag-mortgage","tag-moving","tag-new-home","tag-news","tag-own","tag-ownership","tag-person","tag-property","tag-real","tag-rent","tag-residential","tag-room","tag-second","tag-sell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}