Mortgage arrears continue rise

Almost 100,000 of the country's mortgages are in arrears or have been restructured, new data from the Central Bank showed today.

The number of mortgage holders voluntarily giving up properties to the banks has remained steady, while an increasing number of mortgages were restructured during the third quarter of the year.

About 8.1 per cent of home loans have fallen behind by 90 days or more, which accounts for 62,970 mortgages, compared with 7.2 per cent at the end of June.

The figures showed that almost 70,000 residential mortgage accounts have been restructured, compared with 66,732 at the end of June 2011. More than 36,300 are keeping up with the restructured arrangements, but 33,359 are subject to some form of arrears.

Banks repossessed 162 properties during the quarter, the majority of which – 119 – were voluntarily surrendered or abandoned. The remaining 43 were repossessed by way of court orders.

Lenders disposed of 87 properties during the period, up from 56 in the second quarter.

Director of Consumer Protection at the Central Bank Bernard Sheridan said it was important for consumers struggling with mortgage repayments to get in touch with their lender as soon as possible.

The Central Bank said the number of mortgages also continued to fall in the three months to the end of September, with 773,420 private residential mortgage accounts held in the State at the end of September, totalling €114.4 billion. That compares with 794,609 held at the end of September 2009.

However, the figures do not include mortgages with arrears of less than 90 days. Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1 this afternoon, Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath said the number of mortgages in difficulty was closer to 150,000 when these numbers were taken into account.

Figures supplied to the Oireachtas finance committee last month showed 46,634 mortgages were in arrears of less than 90 days by the end of June.

"Clearly some of those mortgages will resolve themselves over time," he said. "But equally it could be a sign of further difficulty to come."

He called for an official decision to be taken on the recommendations made in the Keane report, and called on the Government to set out an implementation strategy.

"There needs to be a greater level of urgency applied to this issue," he said.

The Irish Banking Federation (IBF) said the Central Bank figures reflected the deteriorating economic situation for some borrowers.

Separately, the Central Bank published research on arrears and negative equity, which estimates that about 34 per cent or mortgages from the four main lenders are in negative equity.

The majority of the home loans were taken out between 2005 and 2008; of this group, 51 per cent are said to be in negative equity.

However, by the end of 2010, the bank claims that the majority of those in negative equity - about 90 per cent - were not in arrears. The average negative equity of a borrower without arrears is €67,768; that jumps to an average of €83,911 for those in arrears.