Early mortgage arrears rose by 3% in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to new figures from the Central Bank.
Early mortgage arrears relate to those behind on payments of less than 90 days.
Despite fears that the rise in the cost of living is having an impact on many households’ ability to pay their mortgage, the Central Bank said the number of accounts in arrears over 90 days fell by 3% in the last three months of last year due to the uninterrupted decline in long-term arrears, which is arrears of more than a year.
The number of accounts in long-term arrears stood at 20,268 - or 3% of all home mortgage accounts at the end of December. This marked a decrease of 11% in annual terms and a fall of 3% from the third quarter of 2023.
The Central Bank noted that the number of home mortgage arrears peaked in June 2013 and has been falling steadily since then.
The latest figures show that the number of home mortgage accounts in arrears over 90 days stood at 29,034 by the end of 2023, which represents 4.1% of all home mortgage accounts, and is unchanged from 2022.
The Central Bank noted that 40% of arrears were held by banks, while 60% were held by non-banks entities. This compares to 2022, where 43% of arrears were held by banks and the remaining 57% by non-banks.
It added that of the home mortgage accounts in arrears, 11% are currently part of a legal process, 36% of which have been in the legal system for over five years.
The Central Bank said the outstanding balance on home mortgage accounts in arrears of more than 90 days was just over €5.8 billion at the end of last year, just under 6% of the total outstanding balance on all home mortgage accounts.
Meanwhile, the figures figures also show that 9,505 buy to let mortgage accounts were in arrears at the end of December, a decrease of 836 accounts over the quarter and a decrease of 836 in annual terms.
Of the total BTL stock, 11% were more than 90 days in arrears, which marked a fall of 539 from the third quarter of 23 and a decrease of 787 in annual terms.
The Central Bank figures show that 57,863 home mortgage accounts were categorised as restructured by the end of December - representing 8% of total mortgage accounts outstanding.
The total number of restructured arrangements fell by 1,422 accounts over the quarter as it continues a long-term trend of decline.
Of the total stock of restructured accounts recorded, 80% were not in arrears, while 84% were meeting the terms of their current restructure arrangement.
The main most popular forms of restructured home mortgages were split mortgage and arrears capitalisation arrangements.
The Central Bank figures also show that the number of properties in possession at the end of last year fell to 301 from 360 at the end of September 2023.
During the fourth quarter of 2023 a total of 28 homes were repossessed by lenders. By the end of December 18 properties had been repossessed on foot of a Court Order, while
another 10 were voluntarily surrendered or abandoned.
During the quarter, 57 properties were also disposed of by lenders. As a result, lenders were in possession of 202 homes by the end of the year.
On buy to let properties, there were 125 such properties in the lenders' possession at the beginning of Q4 2023. One property was repossessed during the quarter.
26 properties were disposed of during the last three months of the year, and a result, lenders were in possession of 99 BTL properties by the end of 2023.
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