Record home repossessions as mortgage arrears rise
A RECORD 455 homes were repossessed by banks in the final three months of last year, the Central Bank has revealed.
And the number of homeowners whose mortgages are in short-term arrears rose during that period for the first time since autumn 2012.
Irish Mortgage Holders’ Organisation chief David Hall, who campaigns for struggling homeowners, said: ‘The increase in home repossessions is expected and concerning.
‘The repossession system has been slow and with the introduction of the insolvency legislation and tracker investigation, many cases have been adjourned.
‘The number of repossessions will increase and the Government needs to implement its own programme to protect families.’
More positively, the number of buy-to-let borrowers behind on their loans by more than three months fell. Such borrowers are cushioned by rising rents.
But by the end of last year there were more than 14,000 buy-to-let landlords in arrears on their home loans by at least two years. The average amount was almost €300,000 each, making a total of €4.1billion.
Fintan McNamara of the Residential Landlords’ Association said: ‘Lots of people have very severe difficulties. They borrowed too much in the boom and although rents have come back there’s still very high tax on rents and that’s a big problem.’
Figures on repossessions and mortgage arrears for the period October to December last year were published by the Central Bank yesterday.
‘A total of 455 properties were taken into possession by lenders during the quarter, the highest since the series began,’ it said.
‘The number of [mortgage] accounts in arrears over 360 days fell to 42,031 at end-December, equivalent to 6% of the total stock of home mortgage accounts and representing a fall of 1,612 accounts over the quarter. Accounts in arrears of between 361 days and 720 days saw a decline of 5.6%.’
But figures showed a slight rise, to 23,224 from 23,212, in the number of mortgages in arrears for up to 90 days.
‘They borrowed too much in the boom’