One out of every 10 Irish borrowers is in some form of arrears on their mortgage. A total of 76,400 mortgages on homes were in arrears in the first three months of this year, new Central Bank of Ireland figures show. Of the total in arrears, almost 34,000 mortgage accounts are more than two years behind on their payments.
Residential Mortgage Arrears and Repossessions Statistics for Q1 include:
- The number of mortgage accounts for principal dwelling houses (PDH) in arrears fell further in the first quarter of 2017; this marks the fifteenth consecutive quarter of decline. A total of 76,422 (10 per cent) of accounts were in arrears at end-March, a decline of 1.4 per cent relative to December 2016.
- The number of accounts in arrears over 90 days at end-March was 53,100 (7 per cent of total), reflecting a quarter-on-quarter decline of 2.2 per cent. This represents the fourteenth consecutive decline in the number of PDH accounts in arrears over 90 days.
- The majority of maturity categories of arrears, including the over 720 days’ category, declined in Q1 2017. This category recorded a seventh consecutive decline, having declined for the first time in Q3 2015. The decline of 1.5 per cent in Q1 2017 contributed to an annual decline of 7.9 per cent.
- The number of PDH mortgage accounts that were classified as restructured at end-March was 120,894. Of these restructured accounts, 87 per cent were deemed to be meeting the terms of their current restructure arrangement, down slightly from previous quarter. There was a continued reduction in short-term restructure arrangements such as Interest Only and Reduced Payments, which was partly offset by an increase in longer-term arrangements such as Split Mortgages.
- Buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage accounts in arrears over 90 days decreased by 2.4 per cent during the first quarter of 2017. At end-March there were 14,367 BTL accounts in arrears over 720 days, with an outstanding balance of €4.2 billion, equivalent to 18 per cent of the total outstanding balance on all BTL mortgage accounts.
- Rent receivers were appointed to 550 BTL accounts during first quarter of 2017; this is down slightly from the previous quarter.
- Non-bank entities now hold 48,315 mortgage accounts for PDH and BTL combined. Of this number, almost 63 per cent are held by regulated retail credit firms, with the remainder held by unregulated loan owners. Some 42 per cent of PDH accounts held by unregulated loan owners are in arrears of over 720 days, compared to 18 per cent of accounts held by retail credit firms.
Charts and related data tables can viewed here
