Mortgage arrears headline a distortion

On Oct 2, your newspaper led with the front page headline ‘One third of mortgages two years in arrears’.

That is a gross misrepresentation of a situation that is bad, but not at the level suggested.

The text of the article, by Vincent Ryan, was correct, but the headline was misleading.

One-third of mortgages in arrears have been so for two years. This statement doesn’t make a good headline, though.

Ireland has 1.7m households, which, according to the Census, are roughly divided as 650,000 outright owners, 650,000 mortgaged owners, and 400,000 renters.

There are 75,000 households in mortgage arrears of more than 90 days, and 25,000, or one-third, of these are more than two years behind on their payments.

The proportion of mortgage holders in arrears of two years or more is 3.8%, which is nearly ten times lower then the headline indicated.

These households make up 1.4% of all households in the country.

Seamus Coffey

Glasheen

Cork