Hi all,
Just curious as to peoples stories on getting approval for a mortgage in recent years?
Myself and my partner will be first time buyers and we have the 10% deposit required for what we'd be able to borrow. I know additional money is required for solicitors fees and such which we'll have over the next few months, but did you save much beyond this amount?
I know the more savings the better but is there a point in waiting around to go through the mortgage approval process once you have enough for the deposit saved?
Thanks!
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Always have more than 10% of whatever listed price you see. If you get into a bidding war, you will for sure need to have more cash available to get the 10% deposit of whatever amount you bid for. Bidding can increase prices between 5% and 20%, but you never know.
Yeah we've already heard some stories about this, when looking on Daft we knock 10-20% off what we can afford as default.
In terms of fees, I have been quoted 2900 EUR for all the solicitor and legal fees (including VAT) plus Stamp Duty, so that's the maximum I'm going to pay. If you end up going with a lender requiring a valuation and they don't cover, you may have to add another 200ish EUR on top of that. For the survey, I got one for 500 EUR including VAT.
That would be on the lower end to be fair, ours was closer to 4k.
You’re probably not going to know an exact price until it’s accepted after bidding, but at the time of buying I had around 45% saved. Was a single buyer, so would be offered less of mortgage as only 1 salary, 10% deposit wouldn’t have been enough to get a place
Depends on the house you're buying. If it's a new build, you might need a good bit extra to cover things like flooring, tiling etc. That can run well into the thousands. That said, you might be eligible for help to buy to cover most of the deposit if it's a new build. That would help free up some of your savings for finishes.
If it's not a new build, then you wouldn't need a huge amount extra.
I both caes, you'll need to buy basic furniture (bed, kitchen table etc) and other bits (plates, cutlery, cups, towels, bedsheets etc).
I think we'll be avoiding new builds if we can and going for something second hand. Also not above using Facebook market place or families old stuff as much as we can at the beginning so hoping that isn't a huge cost initially.
Ah ya! You'd make it work with the bare minimum for a while (a bed and a table to eat at). We had absolutely nothing when we bought our first home and made it work. You just buy bits as you go along. It's probably a better approach anyway. You get to live in the house for a while so you know what will work and not work in terms of furniture.
If it's a second hand home, you'll also have to get an engineer to look over it to make sure the house is sound and there aren't any issues that would require remediation.
It depends on the house you’re moving into and if you own any furniture etc already. Solicitor surveyor and stamp duty all add up
Also you can go get approval in principle, it lasts 6 months normally. You have to meet the bank/mortgage broker to know what amount you’ll be approved for.
You’ll need to have the solicitors fees and stamp duty saved before the lender will give you the mortgage offer letter. You’ll get AIP alright but friend of mine recently ran into trouble getting the offer letter because the savings they had submitted originally wouldn’t have covered those costs. They did have the money saved by that stage but had to resubmit stuff before they could get the offer letter. Just as a heads up.
Edit: wrong word
Actually really helpful, will be sure to keep this in mind, thank you!
AIP with some lenders last a year anyway. Why not have it ready to go and then keep saving after your approval.
Just went sale agreed after a 6 month search, I think once you have 10% deposit + roughly €3-4k for legal fees and survey ( saw you said you’d want second hand so I would recommend a comprehensive survey to cover yourself ) + try to have the stamp duty aside for roughly the max you can borrow, even if it sells for more it’s a good base.
Once you have AIP then anything you save after that is bonus money which can either help with decor or repairs. There’s no perfect amount but once the essentials are covered I would start.
Also we bid on several and 25% over asking was the worst case scenario but we ended up getting ours for less than 1% over asking. You can still get lucky so don’t disregard looking at houses right on you budget
For a new build my wife and I went for AIP with a grand total of 11000 in savings in August. Went under contract with 16000 in cash savings 24000 in H2B and letters from parents saying they'd give us gifts totally 15000. Got the letter of offer based off that without having to get the actual cash from our parents. Very close to getting the house now with enough cash ourselves to not need the money from our parents.
Went Sale Agreed in Dec 2025.
Just an FYI on total costs:
10% Deposit as mentioned.
We also needed the following: Solicitor Fees - €2500 Property Tax - €500 per annum Mortgage Protection - €600 per annum Home Insurance - €300/500 per annum Home Surveyor - €500 Land Registration Fees - €300 Stamp Duty - 1% of Sale Bank Valuation - €185 (via Avant)
Good luck
My opinion on bidding: if you decide the house your bidding on is the house for you, don’t piddle away with €5k bids - go in with your serious offer and where you’re prepared to bid to. This avoids extended bidding wars, and also shows other bidders you’re serious.
If you’re not buying a new build: there’s going to be a lot of things wrong, and although you can ask for a price reduction upon getting them survey - it’s a sellers market. Either get comfortable with what you’ve paid, warts and all, or expect many failed conveyenaces with associated expenses.
Booking deposit to auctioneer, balance deposit to solicitors, solicitors fees, stamp duty, land registry fees, engineers fees
Application submitted beginning of July 2026 Mortgage approval on principle with over 10% ready to go given to us on the 26th of August. First viewing in a busy area close to Dublin City center 27th of August. Sale agreed September 15th Sale fell through September 16th Back viewing next day Sale agreed October 6th (had been bidding on other houses just to keep options open but really wanted this one) Deposit paid between 6-8th October. Contracts with solicitor 11th November Contracts signed 24th November.
Keys in hand 18th of December 2025.
Just to add
There were a lot of added costs- House sold for half a million 8k deposit to agency which was part of our overall, Home insurance 450/year Stamp duty 5000 LPT 2026 428 LPT 2025 11.50 Retainer 200 Legal fees 3198 Purchase land registry 800 Purchase land registry for mortgage 175 For folio 40 Extras for solicitor 274 Approx 750 for the surveyor (one for ourselves and a cheaper one for the bank)
Not recently times but when we went for our mortgage back in 2002 tried a few mortgage lenders locally the staff we knew fairly well , anyway the advice we got was go to what was called at the time the EBS , both working had saved our deposit required off we went to the meeting with what I can only call an ignorant Kant(say in Australian accent for maximum effect ), At the end of the meeting he told us we hadn’t a hope of getting a mortgage from any lender, we knew this guy , single mid 40s family guy physique ,goes for 13 pints every night , didn’t know which was worse the stink of fags or the stink of body odour from him , anyway I digress, we left there totally disillusioned as we thought we were doing everything right . Following week happened to be passing an insurance brokers and was telling the owner of our experience , he told us he’d give us a shout at where we were renting at the time , gave him all our details and a week later he calls and says he’s gotten us a mortgage with TSB now PTSB, needless to say we were overwhelmed after our experience with the other dick . Dunno if it’s more difficult today or if there are people like the guy from the EBS still around , it was his fkn tone that got to me dismissing us like we were paupers , I met him a few weeks ago later and by Christ did I let him have both barrels and told him what I thought of him and he was a disgrace to his profession , showing you’re able to save regularly will benefit ye in yer application , I suppose the moral of my rant is don’t be turned off by refusal , keep trying , wishing ye success .
Glad you got there in the end mate, we'll be sure to preserve 👍
Get on to finance solutions and they will go through everything with you. They were great.
There was a topic a few weeks ago about whether to promote specific mortgage brokers without being asked explicitly by OPs. There was no need to promote one, and without even mentioning they are mortgage broker.
We have been recommended these by a friend, we plan to get on to them in the next few weeks, thank you!