# Covid seems to have had zero impact on mortgage arrears



## NoRegretsCoyote (17 Jun 2021)

The Central Bank published its mortgage arrears statistics this morning for end-march 2021.

Arrears across all categories continued to decline except the >10 year category which is hopeless cases.

There are now just 14,000 accounts in arrears of <90 days, down 8,000 in the year.

I find this pretty surprising given the hit to income that some households took due to Covid.

Maybe there is some except exception for Covid-related repayment holidays but I don't see any reference to it.


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## Brendan Burgess (17 Jun 2021)

Hi Coyote

I was surprised at first when I heard that arrears were not rising.

But, on reflection, it's not that surprising.

The state has borrowed a lot of money to replace people's lost incomes.  So the loss in income is that big.

And I would say that people with mortgages are less affected by a reduction in income. It has hit the lower paid harder. 

And then people have had nothing to spend money on.

As a state we have borrowed a lot of money, but the citizens have built up huge savings either in deposits or through paying down their loans.

Brendan


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## NoRegretsCoyote (17 Jun 2021)

Brendan Burgess said:


> The state has borrowed a lot of money to replace people's lost incomes. So the loss in income is that big.
> 
> And I would say that people with mortgages are less affected by a reduction in income. It has hit the lower paid harder.


Agree. 

Household income barely fell at all last year on aggregate according to the CSO.

I am still a bit surprised though. There must still be some medium/high income people in tourism and travel who have taken a big reduction in income.


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## peemac (17 Jun 2021)

I suspect that with very few houses in negative equity, people decided to protect their interests and adhere to payment schedules.


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