"Are the Remaining Homebuyers on Their Own?"... Backlash Over Targeted Loan Support Rumors

As the government considers measures to support genuine homebuyers who are unable to receive balance loans due to lending regulations, controversy over fairness is growing as the support is likely to be limited to new apartments nearing their move-in dates.

To reduce cases where balance loans are blocked for new apartments nearing occupancy due to household loan aggregate regulations, the Financial Services Commission is reviewing a plan to exclude certain balance loans from the targets of bank-by-bank household loan aggregate management.

The leading candidate for support is new apartments that were sold before the regulations and are nearing occupancy.

Maegyo Station Pelliguid in Suwon, where residents appealed regarding balance loan issues at a real estate policy debate presided over by the president last month, is also a complex that was sold in December 2023, with contracts made before the loan regulations.

Financial authorities recently called in the five major commercial banks to request cooperation so that balance loans for genuine homebuyers of new apartments can be executed without disruption.

In response, Shinhan Bank has additionally allocated 100 billion won in loan limits to Maegyo Station Pelliguid, and Kookmin Bank is also pursuing a plan to expand its existing 50 billion won limit to up to 100 billion won.

Other banks are also reviewing additional support of a similar scale.

An official from the financial authorities explained, "Balances must be supplied for the occupancy of new apartments and housing supply to proceed smoothly."

However, criticisms are emerging that applying this measure only to new apartments while excluding buyers of existing apartments violates fairness.

Complaints are arising on the ground because buyers who set up financial plans in line with current regulations for the same owner-occupancy purpose, only to suddenly find their loans blocked, are likely to be excluded from the support targets.

Some contractors are reportedly forced to forfeit their down payments because their balance loans are blocked, or are even looking into loans from mutual finance or secondary financial sectors.

The authorities are reportedly not reviewing plans to ease the Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio due to concerns that easing LTV amidst a housing supply shortage could stimulate housing prices again.

The financial authorities plan to gather additional opinions from the banking sector and announce specific support measures as early as mid-this month.

(Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Seo Byeong-wook | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.