Increase in residential mortgage arrears and repossessions last year

Overall, 5.7 per cent of home mortages were in arrears at the end of 2010 and 101 homes were repossessed in the final quarter of last year alone.

OVER 44,500 MORTGAGE ACCOUNTS were in arrears for more than 90 days at the end of 2010, according to the latest figures from the Central Bank – up from 28,603 accounts at the end of 2009.

This accounts for 5.7 per cent of the total resident mortgage accounts held in this country last year and worked out at €8.6bn in debt.

Although the number of outstanding arrears cases increased between the end of 2009 and 2010 by 4.9 per cent, the arrears value increased 21.1 per cent.

Mortgage lenders already had 521 repossessed residential properties on their hands at the start of Q4 2010 and by the end of that quarter they had added another 106 repossessions. This figure isn’t far off what was recorded in Q4 2009, when 101 homes were repossessed.

The Central Bank included information on restructured mortgages in its quarterly report for the first time today.

By the end of last year, there were 59,229 restructured residential mortgages, valued at €10.3bn and with arrears of €146.2m.