Sale agreed to sold; it’s time to close the gap
PROPERTY
Property Insights by Johnny Gannon Fair Deal Property
Ask anyone who has bought or sold a home in Tuam recently what the hardest part was. It is rarely the viewing or even the bidding. It is the wait that follows.
I have written here before that conveyancing, the legal transfer of a property from seller to buyer, is the hidden bottleneck in the Irish market. New research now puts numbers on it. About 8,000 buyers a year spend six months waiting for a sale to complete. Roughly 2,000 wait more than nine months.
Even the ordinary case is slow. An industry survey of estate agents found the legal work takes almost eleven weeks on average, with close to six weeks more between signing contracts and closing. That is four months when everything goes right.
The cost is real. A buyer keeps paying rent while a mortgage approval ticks towards expiry. A seller cannot commit to the next home. One delayed sale holds up every other sale in the chain, and in a rising market a deal that collapses after nine months means starting again at a higher price.
The cause is usually simple. Too many homes go on the market before they are legally ready to sell. Title deeds have to be found. Planning documents are missing. An extension was never certified. A boundary does not match the map. None of this comes to light until a buyer is found, and by then the clock is already running.
The answer is to do the paperwork first. Legislation now at committee stage in the Dáil, the Sellers Legal Pack for Property Buyers' Bill, would require the contract for sale, planning documents and compliance certificates to be in place before a property is advertised.
Faster conveyancing increases the effective supply of homes without laying a single block. Every sale that closes in eight weeks instead of eight months frees a seller to buy, a renter to move out and a house to change hands again.
If you are thinking of selling this autumn, instruct your solicitor on the day you instruct your agent. Have the deeds taken up, the planning checked and the contracts drafted before the sign goes up. In my experience, the prepared seller gets the faster sale and usually the stronger price, because buyers bid with confidence when the file is ready.
The legislation will help in the future. Preparation helps today.
For more information call 093-59014 or visit www.fairdealproperty.ie