A new report shows that household debt sustainability in Ireland continues to improve with both debt-to-income and debt-to-asset levels decreasing.
But the Central Bank's Household Credit Market Report for the first half of the year shows that household indebtedness here remains high compared to our European counterparts.
Ireland has the third highest level of household debt-to-income in Europe, coming behind Denmark and the Netherlands.
The Central Bank report shows that households' total debt stood at €151.2 billion in the third quarter of 2015, down from €159.5 billion the same time the previous year.
Today's report also shows that the value and number of new mortgage loans increased year on year in the final quarter of 2015, continuing a trend that started in 2014.
New lending between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of last year rose from €1.34 billion to €1.45 billion, while the number of new loans increased from 7,583 to 8,103.
But the Central Bank pointed out that new lending remains sharply lower than the levels seen in the years between 2005 and 2007. It also noted that the majority of new lending goes to first time buyers and the average length of a mortgage is 26 years.
Today's report shows that the average interest rate on outstanding mortgages stood at 2.6% in the last quarter of 2015.
The Central Bank also said that the overall value of mortgage arrears continues on a downward trend, falling to €18.7 billion - or about 14.7% of total mortgage balances - in the fourth quarter of 2015 from €25.5 billion in the third quarter of 2014.
The overall value of mortgage arrears continues on a downward trend, having peaked at over €27.6 billion in the third quarter of 2013, or about 21% of all mortgages, the Central Bank added.
