'Transactional' costs associated with buying an house ?

Mshuster

Registered User
Messages
4
Hi,

I will be moving to Dublin and need to buy a house. I currently know very little about Dublin and there are uncertainties about where exactly I will be working etc. So, ideally I would like to move quickly and buy a house just to give me a temporary base to get a feeling for the city and then as soon as I know exactly what type of house and what area would be appropriate for me I would sell this initial house and buy my desired one. In some countries though buying property can be a very costly and complicated process so I am wondering what is the situation in Ireland? Would it be a costly mistake if I buy a temporary house to give me a base-of-operations and then sell it in 6 months time because I find it is completely unsuited to my needs? What I am asking here is what are fixed transactional costs, I have no interest in fluctuations in house prices as obviously these can't be predicted. So, from my own googling I have found the following costs:

1. Legal fees (conveyancing etc), some sources say these are fixed, some say they are a percentage of the purchase price ? Can anyone say for sure which it is ? If it is a %age, what is the typical % ?

2. A survey. How much would this typically cost ?

3. Stamp Duty. This is 1% for houses < 1 Million €, is this correct ?

4. When selling, there would be the additional cost of an estate agent, what is the typical cost of this service ?

5. ?? Any other costs I have missed ?

So basically I am trying to make sure that it would not be a costly mistake if I just buy a random house in Dublin to get myself settled in the country and get a feeling for the city, before selling that house a few months later to buy one that I really want.

Thanks

M.
 
Buying a house at present also.

Solicitor is under 1k + vat. Fixed fee
My survey is €400 + vat
Stamp duty is 1%
I have to pay for the Valuer- Bank recommended him from their panel but don't know the cost yet
Also have to sort Life Assurance and house insurance. Of course that can vary based on age, the house itself etc etc


Thats it as far as I'm aware from the Buyers prespective
 

I am a cash buyer so I assume this means 'Life Assurance' and 'Valuer' dont apply to me ?
House insurance, is something I didn't think of, is this like a 12month policy so I would loose 6months worth of premium if I sold after 6 months, or could I transfer it to my new house ?

Are u a cash buyer?
Selling fees can be c 1.75%
Yes, I am a cash buyer, so this ~1.75% is the total cost of selling a house, legal fees plus Estate Agent ? Is this mainly EA fees ? If not it seems a bit odd, that the legal fees would be a %'age when selling but a fixed amount when buying ?

Thanks ,

M
 
Buying a house at present also.
Solicitor is under 1k + vat. Fixed fee

Is this an all in price? I got quote yesterday for a solicitor to buy a house and their Legal Fee in 1k but there is Land Registry, Searches and Oaths on top of that so the total comes to over 2k (the Deed of Transfer alone is E700).
 
Good question.

Just checked my records from using the same guy last time I bought a house and the searches etc came to €500 (on top of the base fee) but that was 10 years ago.
I'll be talking to him in the next couple of days and will check
 
Great stuff, thanks! For the record, I'm also selling and that's another 1k plus fees coming to a total of over 3600 for buying and selling.
 
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Buying at the moment. Solicitor quoted 1.4k + .2k for extras, so 1.6k total. Engineer 400E.