several thousand euros which they would have to stump up, given that house price trends appear to be downward, their chances of having any surplus from selling the house is relatively low (as it is relatively new bought). They may even find themselves not being able to sell it for enough to cover the costs.
I would agree with jhegarty, had the same first thought as you, why hang onto an asset that is difficult to afford but then saw the fixed penalty and realised it probably wouldn't be beneficial.
Is an asset thats difficult to afford really an asset?
I guess we need to fill in the unknowns here to make a positive call.
Freed up monthly income = ( ( Mortgage + Upkeep + Household Bills +
Life Insurance + [Mortgage Protection] ) -
( Rent + Apt Bills ) )
Assuming
Sell Price ~= ( Fixed Penalty + Sell Costs + Remaining Mortgage )
In the long run freed up monthly income paying down debt may be worth the hit in a fixed penalty, but I'm inclined to agree with on intuition you that filling in those blanks would be a lot of work for minimal gain.