Some 3,633 mortgages were restructured by the six main banks during April, bringing the total number of permanently restructured loans to 65,698, or 9.5 per cent of outstanding homeloans.
New figures from the Department of Finance also show that the number of mortgages in arrears by more than 90 days fell by 3,289 to 75,146 over the course of April, and by 6,010 since the end of March a year ago.
The Department said the total number of mortgages in arrears continued to fall, although it noted a marginal increase of 190 in arrears of less than 90 days between the end of March and the end of April. It pointed out that this is an “expected trend” because borrowers in later arrears tend to make overpayments, thus gradually working their way out of the situation.
On an overall basis, the total number of mortgages accounts in arrears fell by 3,099 to 107,967 in April. Within this, 75,146 loans were in arrears by more than 90 days.
The most popular permanent restructuring at the end of April was arrears capitalisation, with this option taken up for 19,329 loans. The Department said split mortgages were growing in number, with 11,157 loans restructured on this basis at the end of April.
The Department of Finance data relates to mortgages principal dwelling houses as opposed to investment properties. The Department said there are 695,015 such PDH mortgages in existence within the six main banks - AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, ACC, KBC and Ulster Bank.
