Looking to Buy Second Home, First Home is Rented Out

We are looking for some advice from anyone who has experience of this. We purchased our first home in 2003 for €170K. in 2008 my husband changed jobs and his new position came with an apartment. We moved into this and registered our first property as an investment property and rented it out. There is no charge to the apartment we are living in as part of his work package.

We now have children and the apartment is too small and we are looking to purchase a second property. We are not interested in selling our first property. The mortgage is now €112K and the property has always been rented with no difficulty. We have about 15 years left on the mortgage.

We have approached the banks about another mortgage but their concern is that the first property is in negative equity and our ability to repay asecond mortgage. They will not take the rental income of our first property into account.

Has anyone overcome this - what advice would you have, is selling our first house the only option? Also banks are giving different information on deposit they would require, some have said 10% and some have said as it is a second mortgage it could be 15%+. We are not sure what deposit we are aiming for with differing advice.

Other info - we are both permanently, full time employed and aged 36 and 40.
Thanks for any advice

Ulster Bank took account of rental income last year when we got our second mortgage have you tried them?

Go to an independent mortgage broker who has experience of getting the less run of the mill mortgages.
If you bought in 2003 for €170k & the mortgage is now €112k - surely if there is negative equity it must be low? Have you had it valued recently?

Agree with advise on Broker,if its anyway complicated then go the broker route,they will know who to approach and how to package it properly.

I tried a broker on this site but had no luck-then Wasted months with Ulster Bank in what had to be the most inept handling of an application I have ever encountered.

My Solicitor gave me the number of a another guy who did the business with a minimum amt of fuss,if going down this route agree with the broker that he will only be paid if he gets full approval.

Thanks for that advice.

Butter, we haven't had the house independently valued as we are not planning on selling so only going on what the banks are telling us. They are saying that realistically it would be worth €90k. I disagree as I see similar houses in the area advertised for more but the bank is of the opinion that this would not be their selling price.

Bobbyg UB is actually our bank so yes we have been working with them but they are suggesting that selling our house would be the best solution even though according to their calculation it would still leave us owing €20k approx (on their estimated valuation) and we would also be down the rental income. They were adamant with us that they do not consider the rental income, even though it is through RAS and guaranteed each month (maybe that's the problem). The tennants have been with us for 3+ years.

Will certainly look at the broker route - hadn't thought of going that way

Do any of you know what the % deposit requirement would be for the second purchase?

I looked at doing something similar recently. We were told 10% deposit on the new house. UB was one bank we went to & they did take rental income into account so I don't know why they won't in your case. I think it would be worth getting an independent valuation done on your first property. It's not that expensive. Also the property price register will show you what houses in the area have actually sold for - not the EA asking prices.
I'll pm you the name of a broker we have used in the past if you want it.