Buyers remorse for soon be buyer…

For me the worry would be the asbestos, that immediately increases the price drastically, happened to me with an attached garage and the price for removal was eye watering, I had just bought it 9 months previously.

You just have to weigh up the pros and cons and if you're not totally in love with the place walk away and keep looking. Consider your budget also and with the housing market how it is how important is location to you.

Ask for the reduction OP. All they will likely do is say no. Explain the reason etc. Just be reasonable with how much you would reduce it by to costs of works. They dont want to pull out any more than you do.

Depends where it is really! a huge majority of the houses in Stoneybatter where we were looking are 2 beds and you're looking between 350k-400k+ for them nowadays, depending on their condition.

With the amount of bank controls on mortgage lending amounts at the moment, I wouldn't be too concerned.

It's not like you have people running away with themselves on mortgages, you're all still limited by and large to 3.5 times your annual combined salary.

House value of 385,000 means two people need to be on a salary of 50,000 each.

After deposit of 10% is deducted if they're first time buyers, the mortgage of 346,500 - which is about 1,450 a month over 30 years.

Two people on 50,000 are taking home about 6,000 a month between them after tax. Easily afford that mortgage.

A few tips/options

Ask for a reduction in price

Look at other nearby options, you can always pull out.

Are you in a chain, will chain fall through etc? Willing to rent for 6months or a year?

Are other properties that you are really interested coming up still. March 2021 seemed to be peak buying demand, and after there was a drop in real purchasers, but depends on exact model. In some areas you might only get a suitable to you house once every 3 years.

Your bank mortgage providers may insist on survey and refuse loan. Your solicitor may refuse to say house is ok to mortgage. Depending on loan to value bank may not care, or they may insist on bigger loan to cover costs of work. This may result in extra legal/ loan delays.

Is roof actually leaking, can you delay the work 1, 2, 3+ years. I recommend getting a friend or builder you can trust to give it the once over. Surveyors always come up with 100 issues, some are critical and costly, others need to be done anyway, others don't matter. A common sense builder type will give you best advice while surveyor will cover his backside so you, or solicitor or bank don't sue him afterwards for missing something. If you have an old house, you need to factor a big budget for serious work such as external insulation, windows, roof, floors, plumbing etc. These should be factored into overall price you bid, and it's nearly impossible to get builders and trades, so it may take years to get work completed.

Ideally you buy a house that has a lot of work done on it, that you don't intend fixing up, and you get it for less than it costs to do equivalent work to nearby house.

If your big concern is asbestos, why don’t you ask the sellers if you can get the roof tested? I knew somebody selling a house recently and the buyers were concerned about something the survey threw up so they had a builder come look at it more closely and estimate the cost of repair.