The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced on December 26 that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport should ease the combined income and asset requirements for newlywed couples applying for the Bogeumjari and Didimdol loans.
Yoo Cheolhwan, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, is speaking at the Government Seoul Office. Photo by Yonhap News
Until now, the combined income and asset requirements for policy housing finance loans such as Bogeumjari and Didimdol loans have been set at a level far below twice the individual standard. Before marriage, each person was eligible for loans individually, but after registering their marriage, couples were often classified as high-income earners and denied loans. This situation has repeatedly occurred.
In contrast, the housing subscription system has resolved this issue by easing the combined income requirements for couples through relevant regulations. The application of different standards within the same housing policy area has led to criticism that policy consistency and predictability are lacking.
In fact, the proportion of couples who did not register their marriage for more than a year after getting married has also increased. According to Statistics Korea, the proportion of such couples nearly doubled from 10.9% in 2014 to 19.0% last year.
The Commission proposed to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport several measures: raising the combined income standard for couples to twice the individual standard; allowing a partial deduction (for example, 30-50%) of the lower-earning spouse's income; and increasing the income threshold to 200% of the average monthly income of urban worker households (about 130 million won), with differentiated interest rates applied according to income brackets.
Additionally, regarding asset requirements, the Commission recommended either raising the threshold to 1.5 times the standard for single-person households or flexibly applying the asset requirement by linking it to regional housing prices, instead of using a single national standard.
The Commission also proposed measures to reduce interest burdens. Previously, when extending Bogeumjari jeonse loans, a surcharge of about 0.3 percentage points was added if the borrower's income exceeded the threshold. The Commission suggested exempting households with minor children from this surcharge. It also called for revising regulations so that, upon loan extension, the more relaxed new standards at the time of extension are applied, rather than the original standards at the time of the initial loan.
Yoo Cheolhwan, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, said, "With these recommendations, we hope to correct the contradictions that make people hesitate to get married and help newlyweds start their new lives without worry."
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