As commercial banks tightened household lending this year, housing-related loans from non-bank deposit-taking institutions, such as mutual finance and savings banks, increased by more than 10 trillion won.

According to the Economic Statistics System of the Bank of Korea, housing-related loans at non-bank deposit-taking institutions stood at 148.1211 trillion won as of the end of May, an increase of 10.5445 trillion won compared to the end of last year.

Housing-related loans include mortgage loans, jeonse (lump-sum housing deposit) loans, and group loans.

Monthly increases were 3.5563 trillion won in January, 3.9012 trillion won in February, and 3.1866 trillion won in March.

In April and May, the scale of increase narrowed slightly to 2.7021 trillion won and 754.6 billion won, respectively.

The increases in January, February, and March ranked consecutively as the top three monthly highs since statistics began being compiled in 2008.

In contrast, housing-related loans at commercial banks increased by a mere 5.6555 trillion won over the same period.

This means the increase in housing-related loans from non-bank deposit-taking institutions reached 1.8 times that of commercial banks.

The outstanding balance of housing-related loans at commercial banks stood at 775.5901 trillion won at the end of May.

Changes in loan balances by period were -1.1503 trillion won in January, 1.3307 trillion won in February, 156.9 billion won in March, 2.4466 trillion won in April, and 1.7213 trillion won in May.

This is interpreted as some housing loan demand shifting to the non-bank sector as commercial bank loan doors narrowed early in the year.

An official from the Bank of Korea explained, "As commercial banks managed household loans early in the year, a large volume of group loans was handled in the non-bank sector." The official added, "In particular, group loans that had already been approved before regulations on non-bank loans were tightened following the government's announcement of household debt management measures in April were executed, leading to a sharp increase in non-bank housing-related loans."

However, the recent upward trend appears to have slowed as management over non-bank loans has also been strengthened to prevent a "balloon effect."

(Photo: Yonhap News)