More Than Half of Mortgage Borrowers Now Prefer Fixed Interest Rates

2025 Housing Finance and Bogeumjari Loan Survey

More than half of households seeking to take out mortgage loans now prefer fixed interest rates. Even among households that prefer variable rates, 90% responded that they would be willing to switch to a fixed rate if the fixed rate is only 0.5 percentage point higher than the variable rate.

According to the "2025 Housing Finance and Bogeumjari Loan Survey" by the Korea Housing Finance Corporation released on February 26, 2026, 53.8% of households hoping to use mortgage loans said they prefer fixed interest rates. This is an increase of 2.9 percentage points from the previous year’s 50.9%. The survey also found that 36.4% of general households are currently using housing finance products (mortgage loans, Jeonse deposit loans, and interim payment loans).

The most common reason for preferring fixed rates was that "low borrowing costs can be maintained even during periods of rising interest rates" (25.5%. This was followed by "it allows the borrower to keep the total principal and interest repayment amount stable" (23.0%). This is interpreted as reflecting demand to manage interest burdens in a stable manner amid interest rate volatility.

The willingness to switch to fixed rates varied depending on the interest rate gap. If the fixed rate is 0.5 percentage point higher than the variable rate, 93.1% of households that prefer variable rates said they would move to a fixed rate. However, when the rate gap widens to 1.0 percentage point, the willingness to switch drops to 67.3%. This is 10.3 percentage points lower than the previous year’s 77.6%.

Among general households, 29.8% responded that they intend to purchase a home in the future. Focusing only on renter households without a home (1,885 households), 55.5% said "we are considering purchasing a home," meaning that roughly 6 out of 10 renter households have plans to buy. By region of residence, Seoul recorded the highest proportion at 32.7%, followed by Gyeonggi Province at 31.4%, metropolitan cities at 29.4%, and other regions at 27.1%. By age of the household head, households with heads in their 30s or younger showed the strongest purchase intention at 58.2%, followed by those in their 40s (44.9%), 50s (23.4%), and 60 or older (9.8%).

The average preferred home price among households intending to buy was 462.1 million won. By price range, homes priced between 300 million won and less than 600 million won accounted for the largest share at 46.3%, while homes priced at 600 million won or more accounted for 25.7%. As for housing type, 85.1% preferred apartments, and among apartment purchase methods, new subscription (pre-sale) was the most favored at 56.3%. In contrast, the share of households preferring to buy existing apartments was 34.9%, down 8.2 percentage points from 43.1% the previous year. The younger the household, the stronger the preference for new subscription, while the older the household, the higher the proportion preferring to purchase existing apartments.