In-house loans for home purchases at South Korea's major conglomerates topped 637 billion won ($445 million) as of August this year, roughly double the level in 2022. Lawmakers say these loans should be counted when banks calculate loan-to-value (LTV) and debt service ratio (DSR) limits.
Data submitted by the Fair Trade Commission to Rep. Song Eon-seog of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's National Policy Committee, showed that housing loans extended by affiliates of the seven largest groups totaled 637.07 billion won at the end of August. Song released the analysis on the 21st. The figure compares with 330.47 billion won in 2022, an increase of nearly twofold.
The loans have grown every year, rising from 330.47 billion won in 2022 to 438.65 billion won in 2023, 578.29 billion won in 2024 and 608.84 billion won in 2025, before reaching 637.07 billion won at the end of August.
By group, Hyundai Motor had the largest balance at the end of August with 269.79 billion won, followed by SK with 179.8 billion won, POSCO with 84.75 billion won, Hanwha with 67.06 billion won, Lotte with 18.18 billion won, LG with 10.71 billion won and GS with 6.78 billion won.
SK posted the steepest increase this year. Its in-house loan balance rose 27.98 billion won, or 18.4%, from 151.82 billion won at the end of last year to 179.8 billion won at the end of August.
POSCO's balance rose 10.48 billion won, or 14.1%, from a year earlier, while Hanwha's gained 1.99 billion won, or 3.1%, and GS's increased 550 million won, or 8.8%.
Some affiliates of SK, Hanwha, GS and LG charged no interest at all on housing loans to employees.
Lending rates ranged from zero to 3.0% at SK, 1.0% to 2.7% at Hyundai Motor, 1.5% to 2.0% at POSCO, zero to 4.6% at Hanwha, zero to 3.95% at GS, 1.0% to 2.6% at Lotte and zero to 2.0% at LG.
Among the 10 largest groups by market value, Samsung introduced an in-house loan program on Sept. 1 this year, so no loan amounts or interest rates appear in the data. HD Hyundai did not submit data and gave no reason.
Because in-house loans do not come from financial institutions, they are excluded from LTV and DSR calculations.
"Given the sharp increase in in-house loans at some conglomerates, we need to examine whether they stimulated housing demand and contributed to rising home prices," Song said. "We must address the unfairness in which the chance to buy a home depends on where you work," he added. "In-house loan amounts should also be factored into LTV and DSR assessments so that the same lending rules apply to everyone."