How to read the Property Price Register

If you are buying or selling a home in Ireland, the Property Price Register is one of the most useful free tools you have. It shows what homes actually sold for, not what someone hoped to get. It is also easy to misread. This guide explains what is in it, what is missing, and how to use it to judge whether an asking price is reasonable.

What the register is

The Property Price Register is a public record of residential property sales in Ireland. It is published by the Property Services Regulatory Authority, and it is built from information filed with Revenue for stamp duty when a sale completes. For each sale it shows:

• The address, as it was filed.
• The county.
• The date of sale.
• The price.
• Whether the property was new or second-hand.
• In some cases, a flag that the price was not full market price.

You can search it by county, year and a word or two of the address, or download the data.

What it records: the sale price

The register shows the price the home actually sold for. That is its great strength. Asking prices are what a seller advertises. The sale price is what a buyer paid, which can be higher than the asking price in a busy market, or lower if the home sat unsold.

What it does not record

The register is thin on detail. It does not tell you:

• The number of bedrooms or bathrooms.
• The floor area.
• The type of house: detached, semi-detached, terraced, apartment.
• The condition, or whether it needed work.
• The BER (energy rating).
• The size of the garden or site.
• The asking price.

So two sales on the same road can look very different in price for reasons the register does not show. A three-bed terrace in need of renovation and a fully extended four-bed semi will both appear as one line with a price.

The date is not the day it went sale agreed

The date on the register is the date the sale was filed for stamp duty, which is usually around when the sale closed. It is not when the offer was accepted. Between going sale agreed and closing, there can be weeks or months of mortgage approval, surveys and legal work.

That matters in a market where prices are moving. A sale that appears this month may have been agreed at a price set some time earlier. When you look at recent sales, keep that lag in mind, and do not be surprised if a home you saw go sale agreed does not show up for a while.

New homes and VAT

New homes in Ireland are sold with VAT included in the price. The register shows the price excluding VAT for new homes. When you compare a new home's register price with what a buyer actually paid, or with the price of a second-hand home, remember that the buyer's real outlay on a new home was the register price plus VAT. Check the register's own notes for how it handles this, on the Property Price Register website.

"Not full market price"

Some sales are flagged as not full market price. This can mean a sale between family members, a sale of a share in a property, or another transaction that was not a normal open market sale. These prices can be far below what the home would fetch on the open market.

When you are working out what homes on a street are worth, leave out sales flagged this way. A single family sale can make a road look much cheaper than it is.

Addresses are typed as filed

The address on each line is whatever was entered when the sale was filed. There is no standard format. The same estate may appear with different spellings, with or without the townland, with "Rd" or "Road", with an Irish or English name, or with the county in a different place. Eircodes are not shown.

So search loosely:

• Search for a single distinctive word, such as the estate name, rather than the full address.
• Try alternative spellings and abbreviations.
• Try the Irish name of the area if it has one.
• Search the county and year, then scan by eye if the area is small.
• Be wary of apartment numbers, which are recorded in many different ways.

Worth knowing: if a sale you expect to see is missing, it may simply be filed under a different spelling, or it may not have closed yet.

Comparing like with like

The most common mistake is comparing a home with sales that are not similar. To make a fair comparison:

1. Look for sales on the same road or in the same estate first, then the immediate area.
2. Use estate agent listings, old adverts or the homes themselves to find out the type and size of each house you compare.
3. Prefer recent sales, and allow for the time lag before the sale was filed.
4. Leave out "not full market price" sales.
5. Treat new homes separately from second-hand ones, and remember the VAT.
6. Allow for condition: a home that needed a full renovation should have sold for less.

A handful of good comparisons is worth more than an average of every sale in a large area.

Asking price versus sold price

On our property page we show asking prices from current listings next to sold prices from the Property Price Register, and for the capital on our Dublin page. Looking at the two together tells you something about the market:

• If homes are selling well above asking, the market is busy and asking prices are being set low to attract interest.
• If they are selling below asking, sellers are asking too much and buyers have more room to negotiate.

Asking prices are set by sellers and agents and can be strategic. The register is what actually happened. Use both, and give more weight to the register when the two disagree.

Using it as a buyer

• Before you view, look up recent sales of similar homes nearby.
• Before you bid, decide your limit based on those sales and what you can borrow. The Central Bank explains the mortgage measures that limit how much you can borrow.
• Remember that your bid is not on the register until the sale closes, so other buyers cannot see it there.
• Get a survey. The register cannot tell you about the condition of the house.

The CCPC has guidance on buying a home, and Citizens Information explains the steps and costs, such as stamp duty and legal fees.

Using it as a seller

• Look at what similar homes nearby actually sold for, not what they were advertised at.
• Ask your estate agent to show you the register sales they used to suggest a price.
• Bear in mind that your price will appear on the register after the sale, so neighbours will see it.

A quick checklist

1. Search the register loosely, by one distinctive word of the address.
2. Remember it shows sale price, not asking price.
3. Remember the date is when the sale was filed, not agreed.
4. Exclude "not full market price" sales.
5. Allow for VAT on new homes.
6. Compare homes of similar type, size and condition.
7. Check asking against sold on our property page.