Mortgage Rules Tightened for Public, Yet Public Institutions Hand Out Generous Loans

[Anchor]

Although the government expanded the total household loan limit this August, the threshold for obtaining a mortgage to buy a home remains high. Meanwhile, public institutions have continued excessive in-house loan programs, ignoring even government guidelines.

Reporter Min Gyeongho has the story.

[Reporter]

It has been one year since loan regulations were implemented in regulated metropolitan areas.

While home prices have surged during this period, loan limits remain capped, making it difficult for buyers to make purchasing plans.

[Seo Ji-yeon / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: As the regulations became so strict and loans are not readily available, figuring out how to make a plan... there are more and more things to discuss with family.]

As a result, interest has grown in in-house loan programs operated as employee welfare.

For in-house loans by public institutions, the government maintains separate guidelines to ensure fairness in lending regulations and eliminate blind spots.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance established guidelines in 2021 stating that loans of up to 70 million won per person should be provided only when homeless employees purchase housing of 85 square meters or less, and the interest rate must be higher than the bank household loan interest rate announced by the Bank of Korea.

However, even financial public institutions were violating these guidelines.

Korea Asset Management Corporation lent up to 160 million won at an annual interest rate of 3.3%, and until the year before last, employees could receive in-house loans even for properties exceeding 85 square meters.

From 2022 through this year, it lent a total of approximately 10.8 billion won to 92 people.

Korea Credit Guarantee Fund lent about 1.5 billion won to 14 people with a limit of 130 million won per person from 2021 until last year, and Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation applied an annual interest rate of 2.5% even until last month.

Even when guidelines were violated, the only penalty public institutions faced was a 1-point deduction out of 100 points in institutional evaluations.

[Jeon Hyun-heui / National Assembly National Policy Committee member (Democratic Party): While mortgage regulations are being applied to the public regarding real estate, I think it is problematic that excessive in-house loans took place inside the public institutions that enforce those very standards.]

The institutions in question responded that they have difficulties negotiating loan condition changes with labor unions, but that they would make efforts to comply with the guidelines.

(Camera Reporter: Lee Moo-jin, Video Editor: Kim Yoon-sung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.