{"id":2199760,"date":"2022-12-21T08:01:26","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T08:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/koreapro\/?p=2199760"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:10:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:10:30","slug":"what-rising-interest-rates-mean-for-the-south-korean-real-estate-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/12\/what-rising-interest-rates-mean-for-the-south-korean-real-estate-market\/","title":{"rendered":"What rising interest rates mean for the South Korean real estate market"},"content":{"rendered":"
South Korean households have amassed a <\/span>significant amount<\/span><\/a> of household debt. The ROK government is adept at hiding its liabilities in off-balance sheets via public entities like KEPCO, which have quasi-government <\/span>guarantees<\/span><\/a> but whose liabilities government debt-to-GDP calculations don\u2019t include.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, households have nowhere to hide much of the money they borrow. Although household debt is a problem across the OECD, it is particularly acute in South Korea. A Korea Pro analysis indicates:<\/span><\/p>\n RISING DEBT<\/b><\/p>\n The ROK government has a healthy balance sheet when excluding public enterprise debt and is <\/span>still respectable<\/span><\/a> with it. The corporate sector is also <\/span>relatively healthy<\/span><\/a>, but the household sector is highly indebted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to the <\/span>OECD<\/span><\/a>, South Korea\u2019s household debt is now at over 200% of disposable income, making it the sixth highest in the group. The speed of growth is also problematic, with the rate topping 5% of net disposable income in 2020 and 4.4% in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n A popular interpretation of these figures is that they result from an underdeveloped welfare state, with households forced to borrow to compensate for income shortfalls. But the explosion in household debt is not a uniquely Korean phenomenon, with many OECD countries, including those with <\/span>expansive welfare<\/span><\/a> states, seeing a <\/span>marked rise<\/span><\/a> in household debt in the post-2008 period due to increasing real asset values and relatively stagnant real estate incomes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n