This year, a survey found that 3 out of 10 transactions involving the purchase of dwellings in Seoul with loans included over 600 million won in borrowed funds.
According to data provided on the 2nd by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to People Power Party lawmaker Choo Kyung-ho, there were a total of 19,584 transactions involving dwellings in Seoul that included loans from financial institutions from January to May this year. Among these, 6,257 transactions (31.9%) involved purchases with loans over 600 million won. Transactions that included loans of over 1 billion won accounted for 1,773 cases (9.1%).
Looking at the annual data from last year, the total number of transactions that included loans was 31,985. Among these, transactions including loans over 600 million won accounted for 8,328 cases (26.1%), and those including loans over 1 billion won accounted for 2,333 cases (7.3%). A funding plan refers to the document that discloses the source of funds for purchasing dwellings. It must be submitted when trading real estate or dwellings over 600 million won in regulated areas.
This data diverged from the Financial Services Commission's claim that transactions involving loans over 600 million won account for about 10% of housing sales in Seoul. On the 27th of last month, the Financial Services Commission announced extensive household loan regulation policies that capped the maximum limit for mortgage loans at 600 million won. The Financial Services Commission established this standard based on the debt level relative to income, asserting that the majority of consumers' loan limits would not significantly decrease. Kim Byeong-hwan, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, appeared before the National Policy Committee on the 30th of last month and noted, "According to the first-quarter data, the proportion of those who received mortgage loans over 600 million won in Seoul is just over 10%."
However, the Financial Services Commission's statistics differ from the funding plan reports, as they include all transactions involving dwellings under 600 million won. Therefore, the proportion of loan transactions over 600 million won may be reported as smaller than that in the funding plan statistics. Furthermore, while the Financial Services Commission's reporting is limited to mortgage loans, the loans reported in the funding plan include other loans as well.
Lawmaker Choo Kyung-ho said, "Rather than demand suppression focused on stringent loan regulations, increasing real estate supply is the fundamental solution to stabilize housing prices."