Question 1

What is Parcela?

Accepted Answer

Parcela is an institutional land due-diligence platform covering Ireland, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Poland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the Nordic countries, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. From a single address or Eircode it builds a property report in under 30 seconds: site extent, planning, flood and other risks, geology, comparable sale prices, ESG and an AI narrative.

Question 2

How does Parcela identify a site in Ireland — is there a parcel number?

Accepted Answer

Ireland has NO open vector cadastre, so there is no public folio polygon to download. You enter an address, an Eircode, or a "lon,lat" pair, and Parcela resolves it to an INDICATIVE extent — an OpenStreetMap building footprint or an address envelope. For rural land it instead snaps to the real, open DAFM LPIS agricultural field boundary (CC-BY). The authoritative registered boundary remains the Tailte Éireann Land Registry folio (the merged body of the former Ordnance Survey Ireland, Property Registration Authority and Valuation Office). The national coordinate system is Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM, EPSG:2157).

Question 3

Is the parcel boundary on the map authoritative?

Accepted Answer

No — and Parcela says so on the map. Because Ireland has no open cadastre, the urban extent is indicative (OSM / address envelope) and even the rural DAFM LPIS field, though it is real surveyed geometry, is an agricultural field — not a Land Registry folio. The definitive boundary and ownership come from the Tailte Éireann folio and folio map (Land Registry) or, for unregistered land, the Registry of Deeds. Parcela does not replace a folio search, a solicitor’s title investigation, or a registered surveyor’s identification of the legal boundary.

Question 4

What is the Property Price Register and why does it matter?

Accepted Answer

The PSRA Residential Property Price Register records every residential property sale in the Republic of Ireland since 2010, at address level — the open transaction record most markets simply do not have. Parcela surfaces recent comparable sale prices for the county/area as real price context behind the report (genuine transaction data, not an estimate). It is the backbone of the Irish price oracle and one of the strongest comparables datasets of any market Parcela covers.

Question 5

How does Parcela assess flood risk in Ireland?

Accepted Answer

Flood is the Irish headline risk. Parcela samples the OPW CFRAM (Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management) fluvial and coastal flood extents — the 10% (high), 1% (medium) and 0.1% (low) annual-exceedance-probability scenarios — served through the EPA, at the site. It flags whether the plot sits within a modelled flood extent, which is the trigger for the justification test under the Planning System and Flood Risk Management Guidelines. For minor watercourses outside the CFRAM study areas detailed mapping may be absent.

Question 6

What geology and radon data does Parcela use?

Accepted Answer

Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) provides the bedrock unit and lithology for the foundation pre-assessment, plus karst and landslide-susceptibility context where mapped. The EPA High Radon Area map governs radon: Ireland has some of the highest residential radon in Europe, and a site in a High Radon Area requires a radon barrier and sump provision in new build. Detailed site investigation is still required for design.

Question 7

How does Parcela handle planning and zoning?

Accepted Answer

Land-use zoning comes from the local-authority City/County Development Plan, surfaced via MyPlan.ie (the national planning portal). Parcela shows the zoning objective and, where the policy is machine-readable, the developable envelope; where it is not, it deep-links to the relevant plan rather than blocking the report. CSO Census 2022 small-area statistics give the catchment demographics. Planning permission, a Section 5 declaration where relevant, and the development-plan objectives remain the legal references.

Question 8

What makes the rural LPIS field boundary special?

Accepted Answer

For agricultural land, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) publishes the LPIS (Land Parcel Identification System) reference field boundaries as open CC-BY data. This is real surveyed field geometry — a genuine differentiator in a country with no open cadastre — so a rural site snaps to its actual field outline rather than a generic envelope. It is still an agricultural field, not a Land Registry folio, and is shown as such.

Question 9

What solar and sun-study analysis is included?

Accepted Answer

Parcela uses PVGIS (EU JRC) for the specific annual PV yield and the 12 monthly irradiation values on the optimal tilt for the site. The report also includes a four-perspective 3D sun-path view and a plan shadow study showing overshadowing from neighbouring buildings across the day and the seasons — the architect’s daylight/sunlight study, automated.

Question 10

Can I export CAD/DXF or buy a Pro export pack?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A DXF/CAD export of the site outline (indicative extent or the LPIS field) plus the 3/5/8 m setback envelope and a north arrow is available as a low-price one-off add-on (€9.9), ready for AutoCAD, QGIS or FreeCAD; it is bundled free on the Professional and Enterprise plans. The Pro export pack (€19) is a premium one-off bundling an A3 sun-study PDF and the complete sun-study DXF for the site.

Question 11

Does Parcela replace a folio search, a survey or a solicitor?

Accepted Answer

No. The Parcela report is a technical pre-assessment. A Tailte Éireann folio and folio-map search (ownership, burdens, rights of way), a solicitor’s title investigation, a registered surveyor’s boundary identification, a planning search and a site-specific ground investigation remain necessary before you commit. Parcela consolidates the open public data so you enter those steps already informed. Note that some buyers may need consent under the Land Act controls on certain agricultural-land purchases.

Question 12

How does Parcela protect personal data?

Accepted Answer

Site data is land data, not personal data. Any owner information comes only from legally accessible public registers. Parcela is GDPR-compliant (Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act 2018), supervised in Ireland by the Data Protection Commission (DPC). Data is cached in Supabase with EU residency (Frankfurt / Dublin); role-based access separates generate and export permissions.

Question 13

Does Parcela have a public API?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A REST API covers the site lookup, planning, risks and AI narrative, with a Bearer key from /settings/api. The Enterprise tier adds webhooks (dd_report.complete, plan_change.detected), batch DD across a portfolio and a dedicated SLA.

Question 14

What pricing is available?

Accepted Answer

Free (Open Beta) €0 — essential panels, map and a limited number of reports per month. Pay-per-report: a Property report from €49, a Due-Diligence report from €199 — one-off, no subscription. For regular use, monthly packs (Starter, Professional, Enterprise) cut the per-report price by 25–60%. Add-ons: a DXF/CAD export (€9.9) and a Pro export pack (€19) per site. White-label, REST API and SSO sit in the Professional and Enterprise plans (see /ie/enterprise). All prices exclude VAT.

Question 15

Which markets does Parcela cover?

Accepted Answer

Ireland, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Poland, Germany, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. For Ireland: indicative cadastre (no open folio) with the real DAFM LPIS field for rural land, PSRA Property Price Register comparables, OPW/CFRAM flood, GSI geology, EPA radon, MyPlan.ie zoning, CSO Census 2022, PVGIS solar — all on one interactive map.