The short answer: look the land up on landdirect.ie, the official Land Registry map run by Tailte Éireann. Finding the folio number is free. A plain copy of the folio costs €5 and names the registered owner.
That works for most land in Ireland. The rest of this guide covers the steps, what you get for your money, and what to do when the land you want isn't on the map.
Fees and steps checked against Tailte Éireann's own pages on 1 October 2026.
Step 1: Find the land on landdirect.ie (free)
Go to landdirect.ie and choose to continue as a guest. You don't need an account to search the map.
You can find a property three ways:
- By address. Fine for a house in a town. Not much use for a field, which usually has no address.
- By moving around the map. Zoom in until you can see the boundaries, then click inside the plot.
- By coordinates. The most exact way, especially for rural land. landdirect.ie uses the Irish Transverse Mercator grid (ITM), so you need an easting and a northing, typed into separate boxes.
Click the plot and you'll see its folio number, something like DN12345F. That number is free. It's the key to everything else.
Step 2: Buy the folio (€5 or €40)
The folio is the title document. With the folio number, you can buy a copy on landdirect.ie:
| What | Cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Plain copy of the folio | €5 | Download straight away. No map. Fine for finding out who owns it. |
| Certified copy, with map | €40 | For legal use. Tailte Éireann post it free of charge. |
A folio is in three parts:
- Part 1: the property, and the map reference.
- Part 2: the registered owner or owners.
- Part 3: burdens on the land, such as mortgages, charges and rights of way.
Watch out for lookalike websites. Tailte Éireann has warned that private websites resell folios and maps at much higher prices, often through Google ads with official-sounding names. Some charge for information that is free on landdirect.ie. Buy from landdirect.ie or tailte.ie directly.
If the owner is a company
Part 2 often names a company rather than a person. The Companies Registration Office holds every Irish company's registered address and filings, and the filings name its directors, so you can see who is behind it and where to write.
If the land isn't on the map
Most land in Ireland is registered, but not all of it. Land that has not changed hands for a long time can still be unregistered. Its title sits in deeds held by the owner or their solicitor, not in the Land Registry.
For unregistered land:
- The Registry of Deeds, also run by Tailte Éireann, holds records going back to 1708. A search there tells you which deeds were registered for a property. It does not give you the deeds themselves.
- If you aren't sure whether a plot is registered, Tailte Éireann will do an official mapping search for €40. You mark the plot in red on a map and send it with Form 89, or point it out at one of their public offices.
In practice, unregistered land is where a local solicitor, auctioneer or a knock on the door is often quicker than any register.
Can I search by the owner's name?
Only in a narrow way. Tailte Éireann will do a names index search for €5, by post on Form 88, but you must already know the current owner's name and address. It confirms what a known owner holds. It won't find "every field owned by John Murphy".
What the register won't tell you
- The exact boundary line. The Land Registry map shows general boundaries. If a few metres matter, you need a surveyor and the deeds.
- A sale that hasn't been registered yet. A recent sale can take time to show on the folio.
- Whether the owner will sell. That's a conversation, not a lookup.
Where Precedent fits
Finding the owner is the last step. The hard part is usually knowing which land to look up.
Precedent searches all 3,217,764 Land Registry titles in the State against zoning, flood maps, protected sites, planning history, grid capacity and more, all at once. When you open a site it:
- outlines the Land Registry title, so you can see whether the site is one holding or several;
- gives its area, and whether it's freehold or leasehold;
- shows the easting and northing, each with its own copy button, ready for landdirect.ie's coordinate search.
Precedent does not show owner names, and it never sees the folio you buy. Owner names come from Tailte Éireann one folio at a time, and their terms don't allow us to pass them on. We send you to the register instead.
Sources: Tailte Éireann, Search and Copy Services, Property Registration and the customer notice Avoid paying higher costs for Land Registry documents, all read 1 October 2026. Fees change, so check landdirect.ie before you pay.
Find the site first, then the owner
Precedent searches every Land Registry title in the State by size, zoning, flood, designations, grid capacity and planning history. Open a site and it outlines the title, gives its area and tenure, and hands you the coordinates to paste into landdirect.ie.