From January to July 2026, home buyers in Seoul's Nowon, Dobong and Gangbuk districts (known in Korea as Nodogang) listed a combined total of about KRW 2.133 trillion as loans from financial institutions on their funding-plan filings. That is more than KRW 220 billion above the KRW 1.9059 trillion combined total for the Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa districts (Gangnam's three districts). The figures come from a news report's analysis of data the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport submitted to the National Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Homes cost far more in Gangnam, yet the total borrowed was bigger in Nowon, Dobong and Gangbuk. Within the scope of the two reports, each district's loan share moved in the opposite direction from its share of 'assets already owned,' such as deposits, stocks and proceeds from selling a previous home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A funding-plan filing is a form home buyers submit showing where their purchase money comes from: deposits, proceeds from selling stocks or a previous home, loans and so on. The KRW 2.1 trillion is the sum of everything listed as loans from financial institutions on those forms across the three districts. It covers all such loans, not only mortgages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Per district, the average was KRW 711 billion for Nowon, Dobong and Gangbuk and KRW 635.3 billion for Gangnam's three districts. The number of deals was not disclosed, so there is no way to tell how much was borrowed per home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the same period, loans from financial institutions made up 9.42% of purchase money in Gangnam, 9.33% in Seocho and 13.83% in Songpa. In Nowon the figure was 38.33%, in Dobong 32.43% and in Gangbuk 31.44%, so loans made up roughly a third of the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Gangnam's three districts, proceeds from selling existing property came to KRW 6.025 trillion, and deposits made up around 20% of purchase money in each district. Proceeds from selling stocks and bonds reached KRW 2.2513 trillion, already more than the full-year 2025 figure (KRW 1.5974 trillion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of total purchase money, the share from assets (proceeds from property sales, deposits, stocks and so on) was 74.7% in Gangnam's three districts and about 54% in Nowon, Dobong and Gangbuk. Put simply, looking at the districts as a whole rather than at individual buyers, the money in Gangnam's three districts relied far more on assets than on loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another report, comparing January to August 2026 with all of 2025, found that Gangnam's loan share fell from 20.9% to 9.3% and Seocho's from 18.0% to 9.5%. Nowon's rose from 30.0% to 38.2%, and Dobong's from 28.0% to 31.9%. Gangbuk's was nearly flat, at 31.5% versus 31.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Gangnam, the loan share fell while the share from selling financial assets such as stocks and bonds rose from 5.5% to 14.8%. In Nowon, the loan share went up. These figures cannot tell whether different people were buying or whether the same kind of buyers changed how they paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The comparison is not like for like, either. Before Nowon, Dobong and Gangbuk were newly named regulated zones (speculation-overheated districts and adjustment-target areas) on Oct. 15, 2025, only buyers of homes worth KRW 600 million or more there had to file a funding plan; in regulated zones, every buyer files regardless of price. So the 2025 and 2026 figures cover different ranges of deals and are not a comparison under the same conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report with the January-July figures also compared years, saying the gap between the two areas' asset shares widened from 10.76 percentage points in 2025 to 20.74 percentage points in January-July 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under joint government measures announced Oct. 15, 2025, caps on mortgages (loans backed by a home) in the Seoul metropolitan area and regulated zones were split by home price. Homes priced above KRW 1.5 billion and up to KRW 2.5 billion got a KRW 400 million cap and homes above KRW 2.5 billion a KRW 200 million cap, while homes up to KRW 1.5 billion kept the existing KRW 600 million cap. KRW 600 million is a ceiling, so not everyone buying a home of KRW 1.5 billion or less borrows that much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seoul city's analysis of the ministry's actual-transaction data found that in August 2026, 99.8% of apartment deals in Nowon were KRW 1.5 billion or less, and all deals in Dobong and Gangbuk were. For Seoul as a whole, the figure was 79.9%. These are August apartment deals only, so the period and scope differ from the loan shares, which count all homes in January-July or January-August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report with the January-July figures read it this way: as caps on expensive homes tightened, buying in the Gangnam area shifted toward people who could draw on assets, while buyers short on assets pulled together the loans still allowed in outer districts. By that reading, an expensive home with a small cap takes assets to buy, while a home of KRW 1.5 billion or less still leaves room to fill the gap with a loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the October 2025 measures came out, authorities expected the impact on low- and middle-income households to be limited because the rules targeted expensive homes in the Seoul area. But the same measures made Nowon, Dobong and Gangbuk regulated zones, immediately lowering their LTV (loan-to-value ratio, the maximum loan as a share of the home's price) from 70% to 40%. The floor on the stress rate for mortgages in the Seoul area and regulated zones (a hypothetical rate added when lenders work out how much a borrower can take on) also rose from 1.5% to 3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 2026 figures, the loan share fell in Gangnam and rose in Nowon and Dobong. The two reports did not pin down the cause of the change. Seo Jin-hyeong, a professor of real estate law at Kwangwoon University, said, \"When loan rules are tightened, ordinary households get pushed to the outskirts, while those with the means use their assets to move into top-tier neighborhoods.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee Seong-hoon, CEO of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH, the state company that builds and supplies public housing), said at a press briefing on Sept. 30, 2026, \"We lend KRW 600 million each for homes of KRW 1.5 billion or less, and if that continues, the housing ladder gets higher for more people,\" expressing the view that the cap needs to be tightened. He also suggested that, since new housing supply comes with a time lag, loan rules may be needed for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others disagree. Shin Bo-yeon, a professor in Sejong University's Department of Real Estate AI Convergence, said, \"What loan rules curb is 'demand to buy,' not 'demand for housing,'\" warning that the cost of the rules could end up falling on people without a home who are buying one to live in. The report wrote that cutting the KRW 600 million cap further could hit home buyers in outer Seoul, who rely more on loans, relatively harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The KRW 2.1 trillion in Nowon, Dobong and Gangbuk shows which area's figures loan-heavy purchase money piled up in. Within the scope of the two reports, loan shares moved opposite to asset shares. Where Gangnam's loan share fell, the share of deposits, stocks and proceeds from selling a previous home grew, but the reports did not determine whether smaller caps were the cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is why any move to change the 'KRW 600 million for homes up to KRW 1.5 billion' cap feeds directly into the math of buyers in outer districts who plan to live in their homes, where most deals are KRW 1.5 billion or less. The same cap is a question of how to mix your money for people with plenty of assets; for people with few assets, it changes how expensive a home they can buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In loan-rule news, the first thing to look at is not 'which homes it targets' but 'who is covering home prices with debt.'<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sources Glossary<\/strong> BITPRESS articles are information to help your investment decisions, not a recommendation to buy or sell any stock or coin. Investment decisions and their results are your own responsibility.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2026\ub144 1~7\uc6d4 \ub178\uc6d0\u00b7\ub3c4\ubd09\u00b7\uac15\ubd81 \ub9e4\uc218\uc790\uac00 \uacc4\ud68d\uc11c\uc5d0 \uc801\uc740 \uae08\uc735\uae30\uad00 \ub300\ucd9c \ud569\uacc4\ub294 \uc57d 2\uc8701330\uc5b5 \uc6d0\uc73c\ub85c \uac15\ub0a83\uad6c(1\uc8709059\uc5b5 \uc6d0)\ubcf4\ub2e4 \ub9ce\uc558\ub2e4. \uad6c \uc804\uccb4 \uc9d1\uacc4\ub85c \ub9e4\uc218 \uc790\uae08 \uc911 \uc790\uc0b0\uc131 \uc790\uae08(\uae30\uc874 \uc9d1 \ud310 \ub3c8\u00b7\uc608\uae08\u00b7\uc8fc\uc2dd \ub4f1) \ube44\uc911\uc740 \uac15\ub0a83\uad6c 74.7%, \ub178\ub3c4\uac15 54% \uc218\uc900\uc774\uc5c8\uace0, \ub178\ub3c4\uac15\uc758 \ub300\ucd9c \ube44\uc911\uc740 30%\ub300\uc600\ub2e4.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"bitpress_en_title":"","bitpress_en_desc":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[801],"tags":[1050,1010,837,1045,1047,1046,654,1049,836,1048],"class_list":["post-3867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate","tag-1050","tag-1010","tag-837","tag-1045","tag-1047","tag-1046","tag-654","tag-1049","tag-836","tag-1048"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
https:\/\/edaily.co.kr\/News\/Read?mediaCodeNo=257&newsId=01577686645577496<\/a>
https:\/\/www.newstong.co.kr\/view3.aspx?seq=14724329<\/a>
https:\/\/www.newsis.com\/view\/NISX20251015_0003363513<\/a>
https:\/\/www.korea.kr\/news\/policyNewsView.do?newsId=148950959<\/a>
https:\/\/www.fnnews.com\/news\/202610020515392498<\/a>
https:\/\/kbthink.com\/house\/funding-plan.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Funding-plan filing<\/strong> \u2014 A form home buyers submit showing where their purchase money came from: deposits, proceeds from selling stocks, loans and so on.
Mortgage<\/strong> \u2014 Money borrowed from a bank by putting up the home you are buying, or one you already own, as collateral.
Regulated zone<\/strong> \u2014 An area, such as a speculation-overheated district or an adjustment-target area, where tougher loan and transaction rules apply to cool home prices.
Asset-based funds<\/strong> \u2014 Purchase money that comes not from loans but from what a buyer already owns, such as deposits or proceeds from selling stocks or a previous home.
LTV (loan-to-value ratio)<\/strong> \u2014 The share of a home's price a lender will lend; at 40%, the most you can borrow on a KRW 1 billion home is KRW 400 million.
Nowon, Dobong and Gangbuk (Nodogang)<\/strong> \u2014 Three districts in northern Seoul where nearly all apartment deals are KRW 1.5 billion or less: in August 2026, 99.8% of Nowon's apartment deals and all of Dobong's and Gangbuk's were.
Gangnam's three districts<\/strong> \u2014 Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa, south of the Han River, where homes cost far more than in outer Seoul.
Stress rate<\/strong> \u2014 A hypothetical extra interest rate lenders add when checking how much a borrower can afford, which lowers the loan limit; it does not change the rate the borrower actually pays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n