Households owe €150bn to lenders

Households owed a combined €150.1bn to lenders as of the end of last year, according to figures from the Central Bank.

In comparison, the total amount consumers had on deposit with the main lending institutions totalled €86.2bn at the same point. This latter figure represented a 0.5% — or €390 million — fall compared to the preceding quarter, but a 3.3% decline when measured on a year-on-year basis.

The latest figures also show a 2.4% year-on-year fall in lending for house purchases, in the fourth quarter of 2011. This period marked the eighth consecutive quarterly decline in mortgage lending levels. As of the end of December, the level of outstanding mortgage loans — including securitised loans — stood at €130.6m. “Floating rate mortgages — which include standard variable rate, tracker rate and mortgages with a fixed rate up to one year — accounted for 86% of the outstanding amount of loans for house purchase on balance sheet at the end of December,” said the Central Bank.