Tough year for homeowners

AN EXPECTED rise in interest rates coupled with continuing increases in unemployment could mean this will be the toughest year yet for homeowners struggling to pay mortgages, Ireland’s largest housing charity has warned.

Respond! said it expects tens of thousands more families to have problems paying their mortgages this year.

They fear that the 26,000 homeowners reported as having difficulties paying mortgages last year are “just the tip of the iceberg”.