"Can't Get a Loan After Marriage"...Anti-Corruption Commission Recommends Easing Income Requirements for Bogeumjari and Didimdol Loans

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced on December 26 that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport should ease the combined income and asset requirements for newlywed couples applying for the Bogeumjari and Didimdol loans.

Yoo Cheolhwan, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, is speaking at the Government Seoul Office. Photo by Yonhap News

Until now, the combined income and asset requirements for policy housing finance loans such as the Bogeumjari and Didimdol loans have been set at far less than twice the individual standard. As a result, while individuals could qualify for loans before marriage, repeated cases have occurred where couples are reclassified as high-income earners after registering their marriage and are subsequently denied loans.

In contrast, for the housing subscription system, this issue has been resolved through regulatory changes that ease the combined income requirements for couples. This has led to criticism that different standards are being applied within the same housing policy area, undermining policy consistency and predictability.

In fact, the proportion of couples who have not registered their marriage for more than a year after getting married has also increased. According to Statistics Korea, the proportion of such couples nearly doubled from 10.9% in 2014 to 19.0% last year.

The commission proposed to the ministry several measures: raising the combined income standard for couples to twice the individual standard; allowing a certain portion (e.g., 30-50%) of the lower-earning spouse’s income to be deducted; and increasing the income ceiling to 200% (about 130 million won) of the average monthly income of urban worker households, while applying differentiated interest rates based on income brackets.

Regarding asset requirements, the commission recommended either raising the standard to 1.5 times that for single-person households or flexibly applying the asset requirement in line with regional housing prices, instead of using a single nationwide standard.

The commission also suggested measures to reduce interest burdens. Previously, if a borrower's income exceeded the standard when extending a Bogeumjari Jeonse loan, an additional interest rate of about 0.3 percentage points was imposed. The commission proposed exempting households with minor children from this additional interest. It also called for revising related regulations so that, when extending a loan, the more relaxed new interest rate standard at the time of extension is applied, rather than the original rate at the time of the initial loan.

Yoo Cheolhwan, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, said, "We hope this recommendation will correct the contradictions that make people hesitate to get married and help newlyweds start their new lives without worry."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.