Hi, I'm going to try and keep this as short as possible. Both myself and my husband bought property separately in 2006/07 (2 bed apartment and a 2 bed house) before we met. We have trackers on both (apartment is with PTSB and house is AIB). AIB will allow my husband retain the tracker and they will add 1% interest to the tracker for any extra borrowing for the new house. My mortgage is paying for itself (750e monthly repayments and getting 1050e monthly rent). I have approx. 5-10k negative equity on it. Hubbies house in which we currently live has 15k equity on it (according to valuation last week). Okay so hubbie has consulted with his bank AIB regarding trading up (the house we have our eye on is a 3bed semi in the same area asking price 320k - valuation for our 2 bed mid terrace is 165k with a mortgage of 150k). Depending on who the hubbie is talking to in AIB (call centre) he gets conflicting info. Basically we need know if we need to have 20% of the value of the new home or because the new house (its not new its approx. 50 yrs old) is obviously a better investment than the 2 bed townhouse we are in and because 3 bed houses aren't moving very fast in our area but 2 bed houses/apartments are (maybe because people can't come up with the deposit for the more expensive houses). I am pulling my hair out because a friend of mine has just gone sale agreed in her apartment which has negative equity and has gotten the go ahead from her bank (not aib) to tradeup and carry the negative equity with no deposit.... anyone know if the Central Bank instructions state that we need the 20% on the full price of the new house i.e. 64k. We have 40k savings. We would like to put our house on the market and place a bid on the desired property but the latest advisor on the phone told him he has to have 20% of the new property price. Thanks in advance.