Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Question 542: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number of households with shared ownership homes and affordable housing loans that are in distress with payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41383/11]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The majority of households who purchased under the various affordable housing schemes would have done so using loan finance from a private lending institution. These are essentially private homeowners and my Department has not therefore collected data in respect of the performance of such mortgages.

My Department has recently commenced the collation of data from local authorities on the number of loans in arrears broken down by the length of time in arrears. The data to end of September 2011 indicate that 8,795 of all local authority mortgages (including those drawn down for the purposes of purchasing houses under the various affordable housing schemes, including shared ownership and tenant purchase) are in arrears of more than 90 days. This represents 38.93% of the total number of loans. The use of 90 days as a comparative metric in considering the level of arrears is consistent with the approach adopted by the Central Bank in compiling information in respect of private lenders' loans. The Central Bank's data show that 8.1% of mortgages in the private sector are now either in arrears for more than 90 days or have been restructured. It is to be expected that the rate of arrears among local authority mortgage holders would be higher than the rate of arrears generally given local authorities' position as lenders of last resort.