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THE NUMBER OF houses repossessed by mortgage-lenders in Ireland exploded in 2015.

An increase of 80% was seen in repossessions of primary dwelling homes (PDHs) on over the first nine months of last year compared with 2014 as a whole.

In total, 564 homes were repossessed up until the end of September 2015.

313 homes were repossessed in total over the course of 2014.

Such repossessions are actioned by way of a court order. These statistics are taken directly from official Central Bank figures for the first three quarters of 2015.

Source: Central Bank

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Other forms of repossession noted in the statistics are those of buy-to-let properties, together with homes that have been voluntarily surrendered or abandoned.

With the homeless rate in Ireland similarly ballooning in recent times, Pat Doyle, CEO of the Peter McVerry Trust has expressed his concern that the spiralling rates of repossessions could be set to make the homeless figures even worse.

“The mortgage arrears issue is likely to provide the next large wave of people into homelessness,” Doyle said.

The number of buy to let properties in arrears remains over 30,000 and we know financial institutions are evicting sitting tenants to secure vacant possession.

Many of those tenants will have nowhere to go but into homeless services while the unit they once rented will likely sit empty for a long period of time until the banks see fit to put it on the market.

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