<Anchor> While the



government is tightening lending regulations to set house prices, loan interest rates are rising even though the base rate has not yet risen. It is expected to rise further in the future, and even as the burden of loan interest increases, apartment prices in Seoul and the metropolitan area continue to rise.



Reporter Im Tae-woo reports.



<Reporter>



Mr. Yoo, who extended the maturity of a mortgage loan worth 180 million won last month.



Interest rates jumped from 2 to 2.5% despite no change in credit rating.



This is due to the fact that banks, which are trying to tighten up household loans, have drastically reduced the preferential interest rate benefits.



[Mo. Yoo / Mortgage Loan Subscriber: I raised the (loan interest rate) to 2.5% for no reason. In my case, (monthly repayment) was about 300,000 won, but now it's up to 400,000 won.]



Shinhan Bank's mortgage interest rate has risen by about 0.5 percentage points in the past two months, and the interest rate on jeonse loans by 0.24 percentage points, Hana Bank's non-face-to-face credit loan interest rate also rose by 0.35 percentage points.



Last month, the average interest rate on new household loans by financial institutions was 2.92% per annum, the highest since the outbreak of COVID-19 in January last year.



In addition, there are many observations that the upward trend in interest rates will continue as monetary and fiscal authorities have announced that they will raise the base rate one after another, and banks are reducing preferential rates to reduce the total amount of loans.



Nevertheless, the median price of comprehensive housing across the country has risen 9% over the past year and 5% in Seoul, and the nationwide apartment buying sentiment is rekindling.



The rise in house prices remains the same, but only the loan interest rate rises.



[Park Won-gap / Senior member of KB Financial Group: Expectations for house price increase have not yet been broken, and since the price of jeonse is expensive, there are many people who want to buy a small house. The slowdown in demand due to the increase in loan interest rates has not yet appeared significantly.] With the



prospect of raising the base rate immediately at the MPC in August, there are concerns that the burden on borrowers who bought houses with debts will increase.