New figures reveal that the percentage of mortgages which are behind on their repayments rose to 6.3% for the first three months of the year.
The Central Bank said that by the end of March, there were 782,429 residential mortgage accounts held here, valued at almost €116 billion. Of these 49,609 accounts were in arrears for more than 90 days. This is up from a figure of 44,508, or 5.7% of the total, at the end of December.
Mortgage holders in arrears owe more than €9.6 billion.
The Director of Consumer Protection, Bernard Sheridan, urged consumers struggling with mortgage repayments to contact their lender as early as possible so that they can benefit from the protections offered by the revised code of conduct on mortgage arrears.
Today's Central Bank figures also show that another 140 homes were repossessed in the first three months of the year, up from 106 repossessions that took place in the fourth quarter of 2010. 33 repossessed homes were re-sold in the three month period.
During the first quarter, 231 court proceedings were concluded, with the courts granting repossession orders in 136 cases, while in 111 cases the courts made orders to enforce the debt or security on the mortgage.
