One in 10 homeowners in mortgage arrears
About one in 10 homeowners are behind with repayments on their mortgage, official figures have revealed.
The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show house prices are up 12.3% in the last year, while the Central Bank said 73,706 borrowers had fallen into arrears.
The regulator said 51,750 homeowners were 90 days behind on their mortgage payments at the end of June.
In the three months from April the Central Bank said 340 people either voluntarily gave back the keys to their home after running into debt or were forced to give up the home by the courts.
Landlords who had taken out mortgages on another 207 properties found themselves in the same boat.
Despite the high level of repossessions the Central Bank noted that the mortgage arrears crisis was steadily improving, with the numbers falling behind on loan repayments reducing for more than a year.
The report also revealed non-bank entities hold 48,199 mortgage accounts in Ireland and one third of those are held by unregulated firms.
Meanwhile, the CSO said house prices saw the biggest growth in Dublin city, the west and the south-east.
The lowest growth rates were in Fingal, north Dublin and the Mid-West region.
