The guide, which is primarily aimed at sellers but will also be of interest to buyers, has been published by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and the Law Society of Ireland with the aim of speeding up property sales.

It sets out in detail the steps anyone selling a property needs to take, the questions they need to ask, who they need to contact as well as how long it usually takes and costs.

Both organisations are advising anyone who is contemplating selling a property to read Speed up your property sale – a guide to avoiding the most common delays.

Mark Garrett, director general of the Law Society, said: “For most people, buying or selling a house is the biggest transaction they will be involved in. However, the process they have to deal with is antiquated, overly complex and can involve up to 15 interdependent parties as well as dozens of documents.

“A delay at any point can have a knock-on effect on the process and lead to significant delays, which can in turn negatively impact the Irish housing market.

“In many cases, selling a house in Ireland takes far too long and the Law Society has long called for systemic reform of the conveyancing system. Through this guide, we want to support people to understand the complexity of the current process and, armed with this information, plan ahead to avoid delays where that is possible.”