How long does it take for bank to agree sale of property in negative equity

Property is in negative equity by about 70,000. payments are being made by one income but no in arrears. Apartment is no longer suitable with kids. Met BOI at beginning of June to discuss either selling and taking negative equity as personal loan or trading up to property that meets our needs - bank said 2 weeks to make a decision but not heard anything. Has anyone gone through this and has a better idea of time scales?

I am not sure about time scales. Banks are overwhelmed, although I get the impression that BoI is a bit better organised than the others.

Have you a cheap tracker? If so, you should be able to port it to a new property.

You should check out this Key Post

Apartment too small for my family - what are our options?

Call again and ask for the persons name you speak to, as you are not in arrears or even pre-arrears the request goes to the very back of any queue.

You'll also struggle to borrow with one income and children because this reduces your ability to carry debt.

When we see cases like this it often ends with the person renting out their apartment and them renting out a house privately (I suspect it's part of what drove up some of the rental market growth since the crash, two renters forming out of what used to be one renter one owner).