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The Financial Regulator today published data on Irish mortgage arrears and repossessions for the period ended March 2010. The data show that at end March 2010 there were just over 791,000 private residential mortgage accounts in Ireland to a value of €118 billion. Of these 32,321 were in arrears for more than 90 days. The data also shows that overall mortgage debt outstanding for private residential mortgages decreased by over €285 million in the first quarter of 2010.
1. Arrears Data: As at end March 2010, 32,321 mortgage accounts, or over 4%, were in arrears for more than 90 days of which 21,817, or 2.76% of the total, were more than 180 days in arrears. By value €6.1 billion was owed in relation to all accounts more than 90 days in arrears of which €4.1 billion was owed for accounts more than 180 days in arrears. Mortgage accounts in arrears for more than 90 days increased by 13% since the end of December 2009.
There was an increase of 7.2% in the number of formal demands outstanding which have been issued by mortgage lenders bringing the total number outstanding to nearly 5,500. In these cases the level of arrears amounted to €79.1 million on outstanding mortgages totalling €1.1 billion. There was however a decrease in the level of outstanding arrears cases where court proceedings had been issued to enforce the debt/security on the mortgage. At the end of March 2010 there were just over 3,000 of such cases which is a decrease of 4.8% since end of December 2009. Here the level of arrears amounted to €90.4 million on outstanding mortgages totalling €670 million.
2. Court Proceedings: During the quarter ended March 2010, mortgage lenders applied to Court to commence proceedings to enforce the debt/security in 161 cases. This is a decrease of 30.9% on the
number of cases reported in the quarter ended December 2009. In these 161 cases arrears totalling €5.9 million had built up on mortgage loans totalling €59.2 million.
During the quarter 225 enforcement proceedings were concluded. This is a decrease of 40% when compared with cases concluded during the quarter ended December 2009. In 100 cases the Courts granted repossession orders which included 13 properties that were voluntarily surrendered and 9 that were abandoned. In the remaining 125 cases, 98 were settled either by renegotiating the term and/or other conditions of the mortgage. The remainder of these cases were concluded by voluntary surrender, abandonment or on other terms.
3. Repossessions: At the beginning of the quarter mortgage lenders held a stock of 397 repossessed residential properties. A further 91 were repossessed during the quarter of which 26 were repossessed on foot of Court Orders and 65 were repossessed following voluntary surrender or abandonment. A total of 32 properties were disposed of during the quarter. This left mortgage lenders with 456 repossessed residential properties at the end of March 2010.
