Irish property is held under one of two main forms of title. Freehold means you own the property and the land it stands on outright. Leasehold means you own the property for the term of a lease, but the land itself belongs to someone else.
How common is leasehold?
Most Irish houses are freehold. Leasehold is more common with apartments, where the structure of shared ownership makes leases practical, and with older urban properties originally built on land let under long leases, some running for hundreds of years. A lease with 800 years left to run behaves very like freehold in practice, but the legal distinction remains.
How to tell which one a property has
The folio records the class of title, and the letter at the end of many folio numbers gives a strong hint, with F generally indicating freehold and L leasehold. The definitive answer is in the folio itself, which states the nature of the registered title.
Why it matters
Leasehold property can carry ground rent and obligations under the lease, and a short remaining term affects value and mortgageability. Irish law has long allowed many leaseholders to buy out the ground rent and convert to freehold, which is a common step during a sale. Knowing the current position is the starting point for any of this.
Checking the title on a property
A copy of the folio states the class of title along with ownership and burdens. Our order form asks for the tenure if you know it, but it is fine to leave it as not sure, since the folio will settle the question either way.