Households Cut Back on Spending Due to Housing Costs

A large number of households are cutting back on spending in order to finance the soaring cost of housing rent and leases.

The Hyundai Research Institute polled 805 adults and found that 43.6 percent had cut down on spending due to the financial burden of paying for their home.

By age group, 51.7 percent of respondents in their 30s and 50.5 percent in their 40s said they cut spending. The figure was 35.1 percent for respondents in their 20s, 40 percent in their 50s and 33.3 percent in their 60s.

The lower the income, the more people cut down on spending. Some 52.6 percent of households making less than W2.99 million a month said they tightened their purse strings due to the burden of soaring housing costs (US$1=W1,183).

In contrast, 48.3 percent of households earning W3 million to W4.99 million and 32.2 percent making more than W5 million a month gave the same answer.