Blind Housing and Urban Fund

If you have ever made contributions to a housing subscription savings account, you also hold a “stake” in the Housing and Urban Fund. The same applies if you have purchased a house, land, or any type of real estate, or if you have taken out a loan using such property as collateral. When transferring ownership or establishing a mortgage, you are required to purchase National Housing Bonds, which are also a major funding source for the Housing and Urban Fund. Even a portion of the revenue from the lottery is directed to this fund. The Housing and Urban Fund is essentially “money borrowed from the public.” The annual scale of funds raised and managed in this way amounts to 120 trillion won. Including liabilities, the total asset size reaches 225 trillion won. This makes it the third largest fund in Korea, following the Public Capital Management Fund and the National Pension Fund. Among project-based funds with specific purposes, it is the largest. In the 1970s and 1980s, these funds were

The National Assembly has consistently raised questions about the appropriateness of the "Housing and Urban Fund Interest Subsidy Program," which has recently been cited as a factor behind the sharp surge in housing prices. From 2022 through this year, for four consecutive years, it has demanded corrective action. However, rather than implementing reforms, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has focused on expanding the related budget. Next year, the size of this budget will reach an all-time high. The government has played a leading role in supplying excessive liquidity to the housing market, and is now introducing a slew of regulations, citing a sharp rise in home prices. Despite repeated warnings over the past several years that the rapid increase in household debt is placing a burden on the national economy, the message of "take out a loan to buy a home" has persisted, following the earlier "take out a loan to buy a house" policy. Policy inconsistencies are apparent,

The National Housing Fund Account, established at the Housing Bank in 1973, serves as the foundation for the current fund. It was officially launched as the National Housing Fund in 1981, and later relaunched in 2015 as the Housing and Urban Fund to be used as a resource for urban regeneration. As of the 2024 financial settlement, the total assets, including debt, amount to 228 trillion won. The annual formation and management scale is around 120 trillion won. It is the third largest fund in Korea, following the Public Capital Management Fund and the National Pension Fund. Among project-based funds with a specific purpose, such as promoting housing welfare, it is the largest. The resources for the fund are drawn from sources such as the subscription savings payments made by ordinary citizens, National Housing Bonds, and lottery funds. National Housing Bonds must be purchased when acquiring certain types of real estate. They are also mandatory when taking out a loan secured by real esta

With the government taking the lead in directly and indirectly increasing jeonse loans, the outstanding balance of jeonse loans using policy funds surpassed 70 trillion won as of last year. This figure exceeds one-third of the total outstanding loans at all domestic financial institutions. The balance has doubled compared to 2020, increasing by several trillion won each year. There are criticisms that the government, by expanding jeonse loans over the past three to four years, has provided the grounds for the recent surge in housing prices. According to an analysis by The Asia Business Daily on November 11 of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s Housing Affairs Manual, the National Assembly Budget Office’s budget analysis report for next year, and the annual audit report of the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation, the total outstanding balance of the Bogeumjari Loan (jeonse loan) stood at 76.0766 trillion won at the end of last year. This figure includes both th