Home ownership among adults in their 20s and 30s falls below 30% as prices soar

Rising home prices and tightening lending regulations have made it harder for people in their 20s and 30s to buy a home. The wealth gap between younger and older generations has widened to a record as a result.

Data published Sunday by the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), operated by the Ministry of Statistics, show that 27.7 percent of Koreans aged 39 or under owned the home they lived in last year — down 2.4 percentage points from the year before. The figure fell below 30 percent, hitting the lowest level since the current statistical framework was introduced in 2017. Compared with the peak of 40.7 percent, recorded in both 2018 and 2019, the rate has dropped by 13 percentage points.

By contrast, home ownership among people in their 50s stood at 63.5 percent, and at 68.5 percent for those aged 60 and older. Both rates edged down — by 0.6 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively — but the declines were far smaller than those seen among younger adults. As a result, the ownership gap between people in their 50s and those 39 and under reached 35.8 percentage points, while the gap between those 60 and older and those 39 and under stood at 40.8 percentage points.

Both gaps are the widest since 2017. The ownership gap between people in their 50s and those 39 and under had narrowed from 24.5 percentage points in 2017 to 23.0 percentage points in 2019, but has widened every year since. The gap between those 60 and older and those 39 and under similarly shrank from 28.5 percentage points in 2017 to 27.1 percentage points in 2019, before resuming its upward trend.

The widening ownership gap, combined with rising housing prices across the greater Seoul area, has pushed the generational divide in net assets — assets minus liabilities — to a record as well. Last year, households headed by someone aged 39 or under held average net assets of 219.5 million won ($149,000), a 0.9 percent decline from the previous year. Households headed by someone in their 50s saw net assets rise 7.9 percent to 551.61 million won, while those headed by someone 60 or older rose 3.2 percent to 535.91 million won. Net assets held by people in their 50s were 2.5 times those of adults under 40, and net assets held by those 60 and older were 2.4 times as large — both the widest gaps recorded since the data series began in 2017.

The home ownership gap between the wealthiest and least wealthy households also grew. Last year, just 6.8 percent of households in the bottom 20 percent by net assets owned their home — the lowest rate on record. Among the top 20 percent by net assets, the ownership rate was 84.2 percent.

The gap between the top and bottom quintiles stood at 77.4 percentage points, the widest since 2022, when it reached 79.8 percentage points. The average value of an owned home among top-quintile households was 686.77 million won — 117.4 times the 5.85 million won average recorded among the bottom quintile.