Some newlyweds start with a W900m home. Others give up entirely.

Nearly one in three newlywed couples who own a home in Seoul hold property with a government-assessed value exceeding 600 million won ($444,000). As Seoul housing prices have climbed, the number of newlyweds who own any home has fallen sharply — yet those holding high-value properties have actually increased, widening the residential asset gap from the very start of married life.

According to data released Monday by the Ministry of Statistics on housing asset values among newlyweds married within five years for the first time, 15,368 of the 48,989 homeowning newlywed couples living in Seoul in 2024 held property with a combined assessed value exceeding 600 million won, accounting for 31.4 percent of the total. Among Seoul newlyweds who owned a home, 85.6 percent — 41,926 couples — owned a single property.

Breaking down by assessed-value bracket, the largest share — 38.5 percent, or 18,861 couples — fell in the range above 300 million won and up to 600 million won, while 30.1 percent, or 14,761 couples, held property assessed at 300 million won or below.

The statistics are tabulated based on the couple's place of residence and cover all housing types, including apartments and detached, row and multi-unit homes. Applying the 2024 public housing realization rate of 69 percent to back-calculate from the 600 million won assessed-value threshold puts the equivalent market price in the high 800 million won range.

Nationwide, only 9.3 percent of homeowning newlywed couples in 2024 held housing assets assessed above 600 million won. All 15 cities and provinces outside Seoul and Sejong — where the figure was 10.9 percent — remained in single digits.

In Seoul, where housing prices are relatively high, the share of newlyweds holding property assessed above 600 million won has surged. Among Seoul newlyweds, that share rose fivefold from 5.9 percent in 2015, when the data series began, to a peak of 40.6 percent in 2021. It fell back to 27.0 percent in 2022 but has risen for two consecutive years since, reaching 27.8 percent in 2023 and 31.4 percent in 2024.

Even as the share of newlyweds holding high-value property has grown, the overall number of homeowning newlyweds in Seoul has shrunk. The total fell 44.6 percent, from 88,500 pairs in 2015 to 48,989 in 2024. Over the same period, couples holding property assessed above 600 million won nearly tripled from 5,254 pairs, while those holding property assessed at 300 million won or below plunged 76.7 percent from 63,290 pairs.

As homeownership becomes harder to achieve, the number of newlywed couples choosing to live in Seoul is also declining.

Of the 756,358 newlywed couples nationwide in 2024, 143,820 — or 19.0 percent — lived in Seoul, the lowest share since the data series began in 2015. Among homeowning newlyweds only, the Seoul share was even lower at 15.2 percent, or 48,989 couples.

Meanwhile, the debt burden on newlyweds who stretched their finances to buy a home is expected to grow as housing prices rise. The Bank of Korea raised its benchmark interest rate in consecutive moves in July and August, bringing it to 3.0 percent.

The median outstanding loan balance among first-married newlywed couples stood at 179 million won ($132,000) in 2024, up 5.0 percent from the previous year, according to Ministry of Statistics data.

Particularly striking was a sharp increase in the share of couples carrying loans of 300 million won or more, pointing to a deepening concentration of heavy debt. That share jumped from 5.3 percent in 2016 to 24.0 percent in 2024.

Over the same period, the share of couples with loans below 10 million won fell from 8.8 percent to 4.6 percent, and the share in the 10 million to 30 million won range dropped sharply from 14.7 percent to 5.7 percent. The share in the 30 million to 50 million won range also shrank, from 12.1 percent to 5.6 percent.