Census 2011 report on housing in Ireland

[Brendan Burgess]

The CSO released this report yesterday

The Roof over our Heads - Housing in Ireland

Some interesting data about the number of houses and the employment status of the house owner.

According to today's Indo, 8% of mortgage holders are unemployed. I will check this out as it's a very important figure.

I have argued that it's surprising that "only" 10% of mortgages are in arrears, when we have 14% unemployment. I had speculated that unemployment was probably lower among mortgage holders and this seems to confirm it.

At work|80%
Unemployed|8.7%
Not in labour force|11.3%

One in twelve households with a mortgage headed by persons not in employment

There were 583,148 households which were owned through an existing mortgage or loan according to the most recent census, down marginally from 593,513 in 2006.

Figure 10 looks at the breakdown of these households according to the principal economic status of the head of household or householder (see Appendix 2 for a definition) between 2006 and 2011.

Households with a loan or mortgage which were headed by a person who was unemployed or looking for their first job numbered 14,757 in 2006. By 2011 this figure had increased significantly to 50,792, representing 8.7 per cent of all mortgaged households.

Of the 50,792 mortgaged homes where the head of household had no employment in 2011, 25,921 (51%) did not have anyone within the household who was at work.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

From Table 4

owner occupied and mortgage free| 566,776
owner occupied with a mortgage | 583,148
Renting from a private landlord or housing body| 320,319
Renting from a local authority| 129,033
Living rent-free and not stated | 50,132
Total households |1,649,408

And total housing units:

Total households|1,649,408
Vacant homes| 230 ,056
Vacant holiday homes| 59,395
Difference not explained|55,986
Total housing stock| 1,994,845

I gather that by "vacant holiday home" they mean a holiday home.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Mortgage Accounts per Central Bank as of March 2011|782,249
Owner occupied homes with mortgages|583,148
Adjust arrears stats by |75%

The arrears stats published by the Central Bank show the number of mortgage accounts, but many households have more than one mortgage with top-ups etc.