Negative Equity mortgages and SO?

Dear all,
Back in 2006 I went down the Shared Ownership rabbit-hole with Dublin City Council and bought a one-bed apartment. I moved to the 100% mortgage option some years later (which restarted the mortgage term at 25 years) and currently have 19 years to go. The mortgage is with DCC - I wasn't given any option around that at the remortgage to 100%.

As you can imagine, the apartment is currently in significant negative equity. I've noted with interest the various negative equity mortgages that are being offered by the banks, but if I'm reading the conditions correctly these are only for those that currently have mortgages with them. As a DCC "customer" I assume they are of no use to me?

So - can anyone think of any option beyond just overpaying on the mortgage (which I've been doing for the last four years) while simultaneously saving for a deposit?
Has anyone heard of DCC entering into anything like a Negative Equity mortgage?

Many thanks in advance,
Greg

I guess the lack of responses means that's a big fat no then

Hi Greg

Banks will only give negative equity mortgages to their existing customers - so no hope there.

I doubt if DCC allows you to transfer the mortgage to another property. It's remotely possible that they could allow you transfer the mortgage but they would not give you any additional money.

What interest rate are you paying on your mortgage? That is the actual interest rate not what they call the "rent".

While the interest rate is low, I think that your best strategy is to pay it down as quickly as possible to eliminate the NE.

The only alternative strategy would be to build up a deposit instead of paying off your mortgage. When the deposit is big enough, let your existing apartment and hope a new lender would give you a mortgage. But this seems unlikely, so paying down your mortgage as quickly as possible seems like the best option. Forget about accumulating a deposit. Use your "deposit" to pay down the mortgage.

Brendan

Thanks Brendan,
Very useful to get your thoughts re: building up a deposit versus paying down the capital. FYI, the interest rate with DCC (since May 2012) is only 3.2203% - and that's *including* their mortgage protection (2.75 + 0.4703).

NE on the apartment is approx 90K so it's a long road ahead!

I'm lucky enough to be in a permanent position in the public sector so my rainy day needs, if I've followed your reasoning elsewhere, are fairly minimal. Any spare cash has been going into a mixture of overpaying the mortgage but with the larger part going into saving accounts with the view to building up a deposit. I've also been starting to think about investing some of these funds due to the number of years we will be in the apartment before said deposit is needed, bar unexpected windfalls.

One annoyance is that I have to contact DCC every time I want to capitalise an overpayment; at the moment they are capitalising them on an annual basis after I apply in writing. It might make as much sense to channel everything into deposits and make annual lump-sum payments on the mortgage, as that is in essence what I'm doing now due to how DCC operate; I'm not getting the benefit of paying off the higher interest rate on a daily or monthly basis.

Thanks again!
Greg