The government will ease the eligibility criteria for newlyweds to move into public rental housing. It plans to change the standards for monthly income, lending rate, and income deduction in ways favorable to newlyweds.
The government announced on the 9th a "marriage-friendly institutional reform plan" centered on these measures. This followed discussions at an interministerial youth policy meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kim Min-seok.
Currently, Happy Housing, a type of public rental housing, is supplied to dual-income newlywed households with a monthly income of 7.63 million won or less. Going forward, the standard will be eased to 9.39 million won or less for dual-income newlywed households and 4.58 million won or less for single-person households. The supply criteria for integrated public rental housing will also be relaxed: priority supply from 4.62 million won to 6.3 million won (3.08 million won for single-person households), and general supply from 7.98 million won to 9.24 million won (4.36 million won for single-person households), respectively.
The burden of the lending rate will also fall. For the housing fund jeonse loan (Bogeumjari), if approval was granted before marriage and the couple's combined income exceeds a certain level after registering the marriage, the additional spread applied will be reduced from the current 0.3 percentage point to 0.15 percentage point.
Income deductions will also be expanded. Previously, the income deduction for principal and interest repayment on jeonse loans for heads of households without dwellings (40% of the repayment amount) was limited to one spouse after marriage registration. Going forward, a plan will be pursued to allow income deductions for spouses living separately due to weekend marriages or relocation of public institutions to provincial areas.