'Interest alone cost us W3.25m a month': Pangyo couple who stretched to buy now sitting on near-double gains

The story of a Pangyo couple who stretched every financial resource to buy an apartment during a period of rising interest rates four years ago — only to struggle under crushing loan repayments — is drawing renewed attention online. Widely criticized at the time for borrowing more than half the purchase price, the couple is now being reassessed as savvy investors after the property's value nearly doubled in four years.

According to multiple online communities, a post titled "Update on the apartment couple who were busy just paying interest" spread widely online Friday.

The post revisited the story of the so-called "Pangyo all-in couple," who were featured in October 2022 on TV Chosun's investigative program "Investigative Report Seven."

The couple purchased an apartment in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province in October 2021 for about 1.3 billion won ($976,000), financing roughly 700 million won through a combination of a mortgage, a personal credit loan and secondary financial institution loans.

At the time, the couple explained their decision, saying, "We felt that if we missed this moment, we would never have a chance to buy a home in our lifetime."

The following year, sharply rising interest rates and falling home prices pushed them into financial difficulty. Their monthly principal and interest repayments at the time of the broadcast stood at about 3.25 million won — close to a typical office worker's monthly salary. To ease the debt burden, the couple sold secondhand goods and took on side jobs and part-time work while chipping away at the loan.

Four years on, the picture looks entirely different. The apartment believed to have been purchased by the couple recorded an actual transaction price of 2.5 billion won as of Oct. 13, according to Naver Real Estate data.

While it has not been confirmed whether that complex is the exact one the couple bought, units with a dedicated area of 84 square meters in the same area traded in the 1.4 billion to 1.8 billion won range four years ago and changed hands in the 2.2 billion to 2.5 billion won range last month — suggesting a capital gain of around 1 billion won.

Pangyo Won 12danji Hillstate, one of the major apartment complexes in Pangyo, saw its 118-square-meter units trade at 960 million won in 2022 and at 1.68 billion won in June this year.

Online, readers are eager to know whether the couple has held onto the property. Comments included: "I hope they held on and didn't sell," "If they hadn't bought back then, they'd probably be moving in as jeonse tenants at a similar price now," and "It's a price they could never buy at again."