Eight out of 10 office workers plan to buy a home within five years despite high interest rates and concerns about an economic downturn.
According to a recent "home purchase perception survey" of 1,508 office workers by Remember & Company, which operates the business card and network management service "Remember," 81.2% of respondents said they "plan to purchase dwellings within five years." Willingness to buy was high among both those without dwellings (87.6%) and those with dwellings (75.5%).
Remember said this shows office workers' investment sentiment that values long-term asset value through buying a home more than the short-term difficulty of interest burdens.
The background to the willingness to buy dwellings was found to be a real estate invincibility mindset that "home prices ultimately rise." More than half of respondents who said they "plan to buy a home," or 54.8%, predicted home prices will rise. As a result, a so-called "yeongkkeul" ("maxing out loans to the limit") stance to actively use leverage has clearly emerged even in a high interest rate era.
When asked how they would secure funds short for buying a home, more than half of respondents (54.4%) chose "mortgage loans." One in three respondents (33.2%) with purchase plans said they had already saved seed money of "at least 100 million won and less than 300 million won."
The specific purpose of "buying a home" varied depending on marital status. Married respondents said both "primary residence (52.3%)" and "investment (47.7%)" were important, while for unmarried respondents, the purpose of "primary residence (64.1%)" accounted for more than half.
There were also wide differences in views on real estate policy. Regarding current real estate policy regulations, 74.7% of married respondents held a clear position such as "excessive" or "appropriate," while the most common answer among unmarried respondents was a reserved "not sure (39.2%)."
A Remember official explained that this is analyzed as a difference in perceived policy impact due to life-cycle differences: married groups, for whom the need for current housing stability is high because of childbirth and child-rearing, versus those who view housing stability as important but relatively a future task.