There are 154,000 families with home credit in default – publico

                 

                         
                     

                 

 
                         

The number of families who failed to pay the house loans increased again in the first three months of the year, at a rate of 71 new cases per day. At the end of March, there were 154,000 families in default on housing loans, more than 6406 cases in the previous quarter.

                     

                          Updated data by the Bank of Portugal (BoP) show that overdue loans covers 6.7% of the 2,304,547 families with loans to the banks. In the quarterly figures it released on Tuesday, the banking supervisor refers to this particular universe as “families.”

The loans granted to households made by the end of March, 105,948 million euros. Of this amount, 2.8% was considered overdue loans, that is, concerned to situations where customers have not met or failed to meet payment deadlines. This percentage has remained the same as the last two quarters of 2014, despite the increase in the number of borrowers at the beginning of the year.

central bank data indicate that when a family is facing financial difficulties and failure to amortization of the provision leaves first pay consumer credit and other purposes (which includes, for example, loans for the purchase of cars and appliances).

Here, the ratio of performing loans is 14.7% of 23,813 million euros in loans. The percentage of debtors, which also increased in the previous two quarters, is 16.8%, corresponding to 598,000 of 3.56 million families.

This coincided with a period in which the consumer confidence was improving – rose in the first three months of the year, but suspended this trend in April, registering a slight decline in this month this indicator. Not only the outlook on the evolution of unemployment worsened as consumers show themselves now less optimistic about the future financial situation of the household and the opportunity to realize savings over the next 12 months.

central bank monthly data confirm a slight worsening of credit bad debt levels, both in loans, and consumption. In both cases, the situations in which the credits were not paid on time also increased in March from the previous month.

From a total of 100 739 million of loans in the balance sheet of banks, 2526 million are loans in default, ie 2.51% of the total. A year earlier, this ratio was 2.33%. Since then, the curve of overdue loans was increasing from month to month, to a peak of 2.54% in November last year, when from which registered a decline and stabilization in this ratio.

In the case of consumer loans, 10.91% are overdue loans – 1 302 million euros in a universe of 11,939 million euros. The climb is very tenuous, but is the third consecutive month of increase. The overdue loans ratio peaked at 12.02% in May last year, was gradually falling in the following months until at 10.72%, approaching now again 11%.

In total loans to individuals – which include not only mortgage loans and consumer but also the remaining share of loans for other purposes – the percentage of overdue loans stabilized. January, February and March, this ratio was 4.4%.

On the side of the companies, the failure practically stabilized, remaining at historically high levels. The bad debt represents 15% of loans, ie 12,906 million euros in a universe of 85,547 million loans.