Expanding to Major Cities Nationwide and Available for Single-Homeowners... KakaoBank Increasing Mortgage Loans

Mortgage Loan Eligible Areas Expanded from Seoul Metropolitan Area to 5 Major Metropolitan Cities and Sejong·Changwon
Interest Rates Reduced by up to 0.5%P

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] KakaoBank is expanding the eligible areas for mortgage loans, which were previously limited to apartments in the Seoul metropolitan area, to major cities nationwide such as Busan, Daegu, and Gwangju. Along with this, the mortgage loan interest rates will be lowered, and the eligibility criteria will be expanded from households without a home to those owning one home.

KakaoBank announced on the 8th that starting from the 9th, the regions eligible for mortgage loans (apartment-targeted) will be expanded to include the five major metropolitan cities nationwide?Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon, Ulsan?as well as Sejong and Changwon.

Interest rates will also be reduced. The mixed (fixed) interest rate will be lowered by 0.20 percentage points (p). Additionally, for non-grace period installment repayments, the interest rate will be further reduced by 0.30 p within a supply limit of 1 trillion KRW until the end of this year, resulting in a maximum reduction of up to 0.5 p. Accordingly, the mixed (fixed) interest rate for non-grace period mortgage loans will change from the previous 4.58?5.08% to 4.08?4.58%.

At the same time, the eligibility requirements for mortgage loans will be relaxed. Previously, only households without a home could apply for mortgage loans for home purchases, but from the 9th, households owning one home will also be able to apply.

Since the launch of the mortgage loan service, it has quickly expanded due to positive responses. After introducing a mobile mortgage loan service with a chatbot conversational interface enabling document submission, loan screening, and execution in February, the cumulative contract amount reached approximately 226 billion KRW by the end of last month. Customers seem to have responded well due to the ease of non-face-to-face application processes and the absence of prepayment penalties. As of today, KakaoBank’s mortgage loan interest rate is as low as 3.16% (variable rate), and prepayment penalties are fully waived until the end of this year.

Meanwhile, KakaoBank is also holding a commemorative event for the expansion of mortgage loan regions. By pressing the 'Participate in Event' button in the KakaoBank application and checking the estimated limit and interest rate, users will be automatically entered into a draw. Through the lottery, 50,500 winning customers will receive support funds of 100,000 KRW and various prizes such as coffee coupons.

A KakaoBank representative stated, "We will strive to enable more customers to enjoy easy and beneficial financial lives."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.