AIB and subsidiary EBS have launched a negative equity trade-up mortgage that will allow customers in negative equity to trade up to a larger property and take their debt with them.
The companies said the product was being rolled out in response to customer demand. Increasingly, people find the properties they bought in the boom no longer meet their needs.
Customers who want to avail of this product from either EBS or AIB will have to demonstrate they can an afford the new, larger mortgage and that they are not experiencing financial difficulty.
Trevor Grant of Mortgage Negotiators said any attempt to help those in negative equity is to be welcomed, but that this product would help very few mortgage holders.
“Very few customers will be able to demonstrate sufficient net disposable income to qualify for the mortgage,” he said. ” This is exemplified by the take up of Bank of Ireland’s similar product — which as we understand it has merely been a handful — launched earlier in the year.
“Like many of the new launched ’innovative products’, it looks good on paper, is unworkable in practice, therefore no real impact.”
