Nearly 40,000 people dipped into their retirement pensions last year to buy a home, the most since records began.
According to the "2024 retirement pension statistics" released by the National Data Office on the 15th, 67,000 people made early withdrawals from their retirement pensions, up 3,000 from the previous year (64,000). The total amount they withdrew early was 3 trillion won.
Of those, 38,000 cited "purchase of dwellings" as the reason for early withdrawal, totaling 1.8 trillion won. Both the number of people and the amount are the highest since related statistics were compiled in 2015. As the government reduced the loan limit through measures such as the debt service ratio (DSR) regulation to stabilize real estate prices, many are seen to have tapped their retirement funds to complete home purchases.
Other reasons included residential leases at 17,000 people (600 billion won) and rehabilitation procedures at 9,000 people (100 billion won). Compared with the previous year, the share of those choosing purchase of dwellings as the early withdrawal reason rose by 3.8 percentage points (p), while those choosing residential leases fell by 2.0 percentage points. Among those 29 and under, residential leases were the most common reason, while in other age groups, early withdrawals for purchase of dwellings were the most frequent.