Eased Loan Restrictions Kindle Demand for Apartments

Eased housing loan restrictions have revived some demand among younger people to buy apartments.

According to the Korea Real Estate Board, people in their 20s and 30s accounted for 34.7 percent of apartment buyers in Seoul in February, up from 26 percent in October last year. Across the country, their proportion rose to 31.96 percent of all apartment buyers.

That was almost the same as December 2019, before prohibitive loan restrictions and surging interest rates depressed demand.

Now it is bouncing back slightly because the government scrapped tough loan restrictions at the end of last year and offered low-interest housing loans from January in a bid to revive the stagnant market.

But market watchers say a full recovery is unlikely anytime soon as high interest rates and runaway inflation keep wallets shut.