Before the Exchequer Returns are released, Ireland’s central bank will this morning publish the official mortgage arrears data for the final quarter of 2013. At end-September, there were 768,136 private residential mortgage accounts for principal dwellings (PDH) held in Ireland, to a value of €108.5bn. Of this total stock of accounts, 141,520 were in arrears, (a fall of 1,372 over the quarter) and 99,189 (12.9%) were in arrears of more than 90 days, as against 97,874 accounts (12.7% of the total) that were in arrears of more than 90 days at end-June last year.
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The outstanding balance on principal dwellings mortgage accounts in arrears of more than 90 days was €18.9bn at the close of the third quarter, equivalent to 17.4% of the total outstanding balance on all principal dwelling mortgage accounts. Early arrears declined significantly during the third quarter of 2013. There was a quarter-on-quarter fall of 6% in the number of accounts in arrears of less than 90 days, which stood at 42,331 at end-September, or 5.5% of the total stock. Longer-term arrears continued to increase, however, as the number of accounts in arrears over 360 days reached 59,844 at end-September, equivalent to 7.8% of the total stock of PDH mortgage accounts.
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All of this increase was driven by accounts in arrears of over 720 days, which now constitute 22.5% of all accounts in arrears, and just over 60% of arrears outstanding. The pace of increase in longer-term arrears continued to moderate, though, and, combined with the reduction in early arrears in the quarter, resulted in a decline in the overall stock of PDH accounts in arrears of 1% relative to the second quarter (0.5% decline in value terms).
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<b><I>We are looking for a figure of 98,000 mortgages to be in arrears of more than 90 days at the end of the fourth quarter
<p><h5>Alan McQuaid</h5>
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