In much of Ireland, and most of Dublin, the asking price is where bidding starts, not where it ends. The useful question isn't "is it worth the asking price?" but "what did houses like this, around here, sell for against their asking price?"
Start from sold prices, not the asking price
Every sale on Daft's sold listings has the last asking price and the price it sold for. The gap between them, for homes near the one you like, is the best guide to where bidding will end.
- Look at asking vs sold for the area: the share that sold over asking, and by how much.
- Compare like with like: the same number of bedrooms, a house with houses and an apartment with apartments. Each area has a page by bedrooms.
- Or paste the Daft link of the house and see a likely sale range worked out from the sales around it.
Turn that into a limit
- Take the asking price and apply the typical gap nearby. That's roughly where a normal house here ends up.
- Adjust for the house: condition, size, garden, the road it's on. A house that needs work usually goes for less than its neighbours did.
- Check it against what your lender will value it at and lend. Your limit is the lower of what it's worth to you and what you can fund.
- Write the number down before the first bid.
Bidding in steps
- Open at or near asking if the area usually sells over it; opening low rarely saves money in a busy market.
- Raise only after you're told you've been outbid, in steps of €5,000 or €10,000.
- Ask the agent what the highest bid is and how the seller will decide.
When to walk away
If the bidding passes your limit, let it go. Another house will come up. See how to win a bidding war and how bidding works in Ireland.