Almost 15% of private residential mortgage accounts were in arrears at the end of last year, the latest figures from the Central Bank have shown.
Some 110,366 accounts were in arrears, representing 14.5% of the total.
The number fell for the sixth consecutive quarter in the final three months of 2014.
The number of accounts in arrears for over 90 days at the end of December was 78,699 (10.4%), reflecting a quarter-on-quarter decline of 7.4%.
There was a rise in the number of mortgages in arrears for over 720 days continues to rise however, although the increase of 294 accounts in Q4 was the lowest increase recorded in this category to date.
Some 114,674 private dwelling home (PDH) mortgage accounts were classified as restructured at end-December, reflecting a quarter-on-quarter increase of 4.3%.
Of these restructured accounts, 84.9% were deemed to be meeting the terms of their current restructure arrangement.
During the fourth quarter of 2014, legal proceedings were issued on a PDH mortgage in 2,543 cases.
Court proceedings concluded in 721 cases during the quarter, and in 314 of these cases the courts granted an order for repossession or sale of the property.
There were 1,393 properties in the banks’ possession at the beginning of the quarter.
A total of 429 properties were taken into possession by lenders during the quarter, of which 123 were repossessed on foot of a court order, while the remaining 306 were voluntarily surrendered or abandoned.
During the quarter 222 properties were disposed of.
The number of properties in possession at the end of the quarter was also impacted by reclassification issues affecting 12 PDH accounts.
As a result, lenders were in possession of 1,588 PDH properties at end-December 2014.
