The number of mortgage accounts in arrears at the end of last year declined by 4 per cent to 88,292, according to data published by the Central Bank of Ireland.

This marked the 10th consecutive quarter of decline in arrears for owner-occupied houses, and represented 11.8 per cent of the total number of such mortgage accounts in the market.

The Central Bank’s data also shows that the volume of legal proceedings to repossess houses in the fourth quarter of last year fell compared with the same period of 2014.

Some 894 cases were taken in the quarter, down 65 per cent on a year earlier. There were 1,961 properties in the possession of banks at the beginning of the quarter while 340 properties were taken into possession during the three-month period, 162 of them on foot of a court order.

The number of owner-occupied mortgage accounts in arrears of 90 days or more was 61,931 at the end of December, a quarter-on-quarter decline of 5.7 per cent. This was the ninth quarter of decline in this category of accounts.

Restructured

Some 120,739 owner-occupied mortgages were classified as restructured at end-December. Of these, 86.4 per cent were deemed to be meeting the terms of their restructure arrangement, which was down slightly from third quarter.

The largest increases in restructures were recorded in the categories of arrears capitalisation and permanent split mortgages.

The figure also indicates that 13.6 per cent of restructured accounts are not meeting the terms of their new arrangements.

In terms of buy-to-let accounts, the number in arrears of 90 days or more fell by 5.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year. At the end of December, there were 15,064 BTL accounts in arrears of 720 days or more, with an aggregate outstanding balance of €4.4 billion.

There was an increase of 31 per cent in the number of cases where a rent receiver was appointed, reversing a sharp decline in the previous quarter.

The regulator said non-bank entities now hold 47,402 mortgage accounts for owner-occupied and BTL combined.

Of this number, 19,701 are in arrears of more than 90 days, with 13,193 in arrears of 720 days or more. This represents almost 28 per cent of all mortgage accounts in arrears of more than two years or more.