'There is no way to purchase a house'

The number of apartment unit purchases by people in their 20s and 30s has decreased compared to last year. According to data released by the Korea Real Estate Board, the figure for apartments located in Seoul stood at 4,150 from January through August, accounting for 35 percent of the total, down by 6.8 percent year on year.

According to the data, the share of housing purchases made by people in their 20s and 30s stood at 25 percent at the end of December 2019. The next year, the figure went up to 30.8 percent. Last year, the number of apartment unit purchases by younger Koreans hit a record 44.8 percent as of July 2021.

Although the reinforcement of loan regulations forced the figure to go down, the number rebounded to 42.3 percent due to expectations on deregulation after the latest presidential election. Then, as interest rates started to go up, the number plunged to 28.6 percent in August.

Data released by the Bank of Korea demonstrated that the debt service ratio (DSR) of people in their 20s and 30s with housing-related debts was 48.1 percent at the end of June, up 3.9 percent from March 2020. In contrast, the DSR among those who do not have housing-related debts increased 0.3 percent to 27.1 percent from 26.8 percent.

#rising_interest_rates_cause_more_pain
“It is the people who suffer from increasing interest rates.”
“There is no way to purchase a house if you don’t have money. I can’t even think about taking out a loan due to high interest rates.”

#you_made_the_choice
“They decided to risk everything to borrow money and invest in real estate. It’s their own decision. They should be responsible for what they chose.”
“It’s just the result of real-estate speculation.”

#housing_prices_are_too_high
“Prices for apartment units should be normalized.”
“It’s still too expensive.”

BY KIM HA-YEONG, BY HAN HYE-RIM [han.hyerim1@joongang.co.kr]