The Central Bank and Financial Regulator today published the latest data on Irish mortgage arrears and repossessions for the period ended June 2010 and showed that 36,438 were in arrears for more than 90 days

The figures show that at end June 2010 there were over 789,000 private residential mortgage accounts held in Ireland to a value of almost €118bn. Of these 36,438 were in arrears for more than 90 days. The data also shows that overall mortgage debt outstanding for private residential mortgages decreased by over €339m since the first quarter of 2010. This is the fourth set of data the Central Bank and Financial Regulator has published on mortgage arrears and the figures collated over the 12 month period from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 show there were 387 residential properties repossessed.

1. Arrears Data: As at end June 2010, 36,438 mortgage accounts, or 4.6%, were in arrears for more than 90 days of which 24,797, or 3.14% of the total mortgage accounts, were more than 180 days in arrears. By value €6.9bn was owed in relation to all accounts more than 90 days in arrears of which €4.8bn was owed for accounts more than 180 days in arrears. Mortgage accounts in arrears for more than 90 days increased by 12.74% since the end of March 2010.

There was little change in the number of formal demands outstanding which have been issued by mortgage lenders with the total number outstanding remaining at nearly 5,500. In these cases the level of arrears amounts to €84.48m on outstanding mortgages totalling just over €1.16bn. There was also a further 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 June 2010 there were 3,023 of such cases which is a decrease of 1.75% since end of March 2010. In these cases the level of arrears amounted to €96.9m on outstanding mortgages totalling €672m.

2. Court Proceedings: During the quarter ended June 2010, mortgage lenders applied to Court to commence proceedings to enforce the debt/security in 170 cases. This is an increase of 5.59% on the number of cases reported in the quarter ended March 2010. In these 170 cases arrears totalling €8.1m had built up on mortgage loans totalling €41.3m.

During the quarter 215 enforcement proceedings were concluded. In 101 cases the Courts granted repossession orders which included 7 properties that were voluntarily surrendered and 24 that were abandoned. In the remaining 114 where enforcement proceedings were concluded, 85 were settled either by renegotiating the term and/or other conditions of the mortgage. The remainder of these cases were concluded by voluntary surrender or on other terms.

3. Repossessions: At the beginning of the quarter mortgage lenders held a stock of 455 repossessed residential properties. A further 86 were repossessed during the quarter of which 20 were repossessed on foot of Court Orders and 66 were repossessed following voluntary surrender or abandonment. This brings the total properties repossessed in the twelve month period 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010 to 387.

A total of 45 properties were disposed of during the quarter. This left mortgage lenders with 496 repossessed residential properties at the end of June 2010.