Central Bank figures point to a 10% rise in mortgage arrears in Irish households.

The rise sees the amount of properties in arrears hit more than 70,000.

The 10 percent rise occurred between the end of September and the end of December 2011. The rise has been described as “astonishing” by lobby group New Beginning according to the Irish Times.

The rise is the largest since records began two years ago.

In comparison, in March 2010 the amount of Irish households in mortgage arrears was 49,609. This figure has now increased to 70,911.

We have created a chart showing the two amounts. See figure 1 below.

According to an article in the Belfast Telegraph, this represents 1 in 10 Irish households being in arrears.

Nearly 75,000 home-owners had their mortgages restructured to help cope with financial difficulties faced.

133 homes were repossessed in Ireland during the period September to December 2011. Of which 50 were seized on the basis of court orders. The remaining homes were either voluntarily vacated or abandoned. This represents according to the Telegraph article one borrower putting their keys through the letter every day.

However the Central Bank said repossessions were in fact down during the three month period when compared to the previous three months.

The following is a link to the Central Bank release on the topic.

Article by LoanCalculator.ie. A range of financial calculators in Ireland. Loan calculators, mortgage calculators and more.