720 days of mortgage arrears totalling €8bn

The percentage of mortgages in long-term arrears is on the increase with more than €8bn of total arrears falling into this category, new data shows.

Despite the overall decline in the volume of primary-dwelling home arrears, there has been an increasing percentage of loans more than 720 days past their repayment date, according to the Central Bank’s household credit market report published yesterday.

In addition to the €8bn worth of lending in long-term arrears, a further €6.8bn was 180 to 720 days overdue. The value of mortgages in arrears has fallen from peak levels of just over €18.8bn in the third quarter of 2013 to €16.6bn representing more than 15% of the outstanding stock of loans.