"Households with 2 or More Mortgage Loans at 32%... Speculation Concerns"

Claim by Assemblyman Cha Gyugeun of the Jojuk Innovation Party

It was revealed that the proportion of households that received two or more new mortgage loans in the past three years reached 32%.

According to data submitted by the Bank of Korea to Assemblyman Cha Gyu-geun of the Innovation Party, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee, the average proportion of households that received two or more mortgage loans from 2021 to 2023 was 32.5%.

By year, the figures were 34.2% in 2021, 32% in 2022, and 31.2% in 2023. Estimating the loan amounts based on the total outstanding mortgage loan balance, the amounts were KRW 336.6 trillion in 2021, KRW 324.2 trillion in 2022, and KRW 332 trillion in 2023.

When examining total household loans and mortgage loans by debt quintile, most of the loan amounts were concentrated in the top 20% by debt holdings. As of last year, household debt in the top quintile (top 20%) accounted for 78.1%, and mortgage loans accounted for 93.7%.

Assemblyman Cha explained, "Household loans and mortgage loans are concentrated among high-income groups," adding, "Among mortgage loans, multi-homeowners who have received two or more mortgage loans account for 32%."

He emphasized, "This phenomenon appears to be due to high-income groups taking out financial loans not for actual residence purposes but to gain profits from real estate speculation," and stated, "The government must prepare measures to prevent financial inequality from leading to asset inequality."