Numbers In Mortgage Arrears Rise By 5,000

Figures from rating agency Moody's has revealed 5,000 more mortgage-holders are now in arrears across the Irish Republic.

Moody's said last week that 45,000 homeowners have failed to make a repayment for three months or more. The figures are on top of an estimated 40,000 others who have had to ask their lender to reduce the cost of monthly bills.

It has also emerged that courts issued 600 repossession orders for houses last year, with many of those being granted to lenders in cases where no repayments had been made for an extended period.

The majority of repossession orders are for residential properties, with 263 of the 306 properties seized by the banks in the Circuit Court last year granted because of defaults on home loans.

Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service has today published statistics for writs and originating summonses issued in respect of mortgages in the Northern Ireland High Court.

During the third quarter of 2010, 825 writs and originating summonses were issued. The comparable figure for the third quarter in 2009 was 807 showing a 2% increase in the number of mortgage cases received in Chancery against the same period in 2009. However, not all writs and originating summonses lead to eviction or repossession.

UK repossessions as a whole are set to fall during the first half of 2011 (15,557 to 01 July) and rise during the second half of the year (17,700) - but Northern Ireland is expected to experience the worst rate in the UK (0.83% - 2,540), with repossession rates significantly higher than other regions.

This reflects the 10.2% fall in house prices that have occurred in the region in the last year combined with the region's links to the troubled Republic of Ireland economy.

That's according to the first regionally-based forecast which has been produced by financial outsourcer HML.

(DW)