▲ Apartments in Seoul are seen in this file photo taken March 8, 2026. (Yonhap)

BOK-real estate market

S. Korea's financial exposure to real estate market up in 2025, but pace of growth slows: BOK

SEOUL, March 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's financial exposure to the real estate market rose slightly in 2025 but the pace of growth slowed from a year earlier, a central bank report showed Thursday.

The country's outstanding financial exposure to the real estate market came to 4,223.1 trillion won (USD$2.8 trillion) as of end-2025, up 2.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the report released by the Bank of Korea (BOK).

Of the total, 2,756 trillion won were outstanding loans, up 2.3 percent from a year earlier. The rate of increase compares with a 4.8 percent on-year hike seen in 2024, according to the report.

The outstanding amount of real estate-related loan guarantees also gained 2.3 percent on-year to 1,089 trillion won as of end-2025, again slowing from a 4.8 percent surge the previous year, while the rate of increase in financial exposure to property-related investment products slowed to 3.2 percent from 3.7 percent over the cited period.

The BOK report partly attributed the slower growth to a sluggish real estate market in rural areas, but also to stricter lending regulations on household loans.

President Lee Jae Myung has repeatedly stressed the need to cool the overheated property market, calling real estate speculation "the biggest problem" in South Korea.

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