If one person decides to buy out the other, an independent valuation will be carried out on the property to determine its market value.
If you are acquiring the property in your sole name, you will usually have to take out a new mortgage in order to pay off the old jointly-held one and give your ex his or her share of the property's equity.
In cases where the value of the property has escalated since you first purchased it together, this will mean borrowing a significantly higher loan, and this time the responsibility of paying it back will be all yours.
On the other hand, as lending institutions will be prepared to advance up to 92 per cent of the property's current value, there should be plenty of scope for extending the mortgage - as long as you earn enough to be able to make the repayments.
For example, a property might only have been worth €100,000 when you and your partner bought it, but could since have escalated in value to €480,000.
If the mortgage had been whittled down to €80,000 by the time of the split, the equity in the property will be €400,000. You must satisfy the lenders that you can make the repayments on a €280,000 loan, €200,000 of which you will need to buy out the other partner.
The repayments on a €280,000 loan being repaid over 25 years at a typical European Central Bank tracker mortgage rate of 3.1 per cent will be around €1,340 a month.
Lenders generally don't allow mortgage terms to carry on past retirement age of 65, but if you are young enough to be able to borrow over a longer 35-year term, the repayments will fall to a more manageable €1,090.
According to Mr Ronan Mackey, of NC Mortgage Brokers, the situation is not always as daunting as people imagine.
"Lenders have changed their criteria over recent times and are willing to lend far more to single people than they were in the past," he says. Single people can usually borrow between three-and-a-half and five times their gross annual salary, although some lenders will calculate that the maximum loan they will advance will be one that gives rise to monthly repayments not exceeding 35-45 per cent of their net monthly disposable income.
Bonuses and commissions will also be taken into account.
However, if the purchase of the ex-partner's share exceeds €127,000, there may be a stamp duty liability, with rates starting at 3 per cent.
As long as there is sufficient equity in the property, you can factor in additional costs such as stamp duty liabilities and any legal fees into the new loan, according to Mr Mackey.
If you have a €280,000 mortgage on a property worth €480,000, the loan-to-value ratio will be less than 60 per cent, meaning there will be room for releasing further equity provided you can afford the repayments.
