Flat options this summer....?!?

GoldenEye07

new thread as the last one got a bit confusing,

I currently own a flat with 2 friends which we bought nearly 2 years ago, (may 07) and this summer we had agreed to go our separate ways with our girlfriends etc…….
We bought the flat for 172k with a 6k deposit ie. Mortgage of 166k……

I had planned to buy a new flat as had the other guys and we planned to rent the current flat out, however I have been advised this would crazy given house prices will continue to fall this year and we will most likely already be in negative equity in the current flat….so I then thought maybe me and my gf could stay on in this flat while the other 2 guys move out.

My question is though what arrangement could we come to for this….? To buy them out am I right in saying we need pay the 166k back no matter what, i.e. me and my gf need to get a mortgage for 166k? this won’t be possible as we will have about 5k max for deposit……is this the only way for buy out?

So are there any other options, for example us (me and my gf) staying in the flat but kind of renting it from the 3 us (me and my 2 mates).

We are on a SVR which is due to run out in may………are we in a position to change mortgages or do we need to stick with what we have if we are in negative equity?

Any advice you can give would be appreciated.