South Korea’s household loans extended by financial institutions rose by more than 41 trillion won ($28.1 billion) in 2024, mainly led by strong demand for mortgage loans.

According to data from the Financial Services Commission on Wednesday, household lending by local financial institutions increased 41.6 trillion won, or 2.6 percent, in 2024 from a year ago.

The figure is more than quadruple from 10.1 trillion won growth in 2023.

Mortgage loans drove the rise.

Montage loans extended by financial institutions increased by 57.1 trillion won in 2024 from a year ago.

In particular, mortgages from banks rose by 52.1 trillion won. Other loans extended by banks decreased by 5.9 trillion won.

The growth in mortgage lending, in the meantime, is on a downward trend on the back of tighter lending regulations.

After a sharp increase of 9.7 trillion won in August, mortgage loans in the financial sector rose by 5.4 trillion won in September 2024, 6.5 trillion won in October, 5 trillion won in November, and 2 trillion won in December.

Household loans in the banking sector declined by 400 billion won.

Financial authorities noted that the slowdown is attributed to factors such as weak demand for moving services during the winter months and consumer expectations of further rate cuts, leading some potential borrowers to delay taking out new loans.

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