At the end of September 2015, 149,000 families were behind with their mortgage dues, which is 2,674 fewer families than at the end of the second quarter in June this year.
Data released on Tuesday this week by the Bank of Portugal shows that of the 2,292,924 families who have been granted mortgages by banks, 6.5 percent were behind with the repayments.
And while both the number of due loans and defaulting families dropped in September in relation to June, they are still on a par with figures from last year.
In March the number of families failing to pay their mortgages reached 154,000, the highest figure since the third quarter of 2009.
Even though that figure fell in June to 151,700, and subsequently to 149,000 in September, there are still more defaulting families now than there were at the beginning of the year.
The Bank of Portugal’s data also shows that private deposits stabilised between August and September, having risen slightly from €136.7 million to €136.8 million.
This follows news this week that the Euribor rate, which governs the base interest rates on mortgages and loans fell to its lowest ever figure for three, six, nine and 12 month contracts.
The six month rate now stands at a negative 0.006 percent, down from a previous figure of -0.004 percent, while the other common rate three-month indicator dropped to 0.079 percent.