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OVER TEN PER cent of all Irish residential mortgages are in arrears of more than 90 days, according to new figures from the Central Bank.
A total of 77,630 – or 10.2 per cent – of Ireland’s mortgages are now at least three months behind with repayments. The figure is an increase from December 2011 when 9.2 per cent of mortgages were reported as being in arrears and illustrated the deepening mortgage crisis.
The number of mortgage holders in arrears of more than 180 days has also risen from 6.9 per cent in December to 7.8 per cent at the end of March.
A total of 170 properties were repossessed by lenders during the first three months of this year.
65 of these homes were repossessed after a court order, while the remaining 105 were voluntarily abandoned. The figure is an increase of 28 per cent compared with the final three months of last year.
The Central Bank figures found that 79,712 homes had their mortgages restructured, an increase of 7.2 per cent since the end of December. Almost half of the restructured accounts were in already in arrears.
There were over 70,000 mortgage holders more than 90 days behind in the repayments by the end of December 2011. Of these, 53,086 were in arrears beyond 180 days.
The figures suggested that the average mortgage holder was €1,453 behind in their repayments by last December.
AIB, which has a large number of mortgage customers, said that more than 33,000 customers have worked out an agreement to delay foreclosure of their homes.
“We full accept that [arrears] are concerning for a lot of our customers and have been working to ensure we support customers in this situation,” said Jim O’Keeffe, head of mortgages at AIB.
The bank urged anyone facing difficulties in relation to their mortgage repayments to talk the mortgage provider at the earliest possible opportunity.
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