472 new pensioners join Housing Pension in October

80.2% increase year-on-year

The Housing Pension, which provides homeowners with pension benefits throughout their lives, welcomed 472 new subscribers (601.3 billion Korean won in credit guarantees offered) in the month of October.

The Korea Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) announced on November 8 that the number of new subscriptions and the amount of credit guarantees in October 2012 increased by 80.2% and 53.3% from the same period in the previous year (262 new subscriptions and 392.3 billion Korean won guaranteed). The figures, however, represent a slight decrease from those of last September (559 new subscriptions and 759.1 billion Korean won guaranteed).

Intensive promotions from late September through late October—around the Korean thanksgiving holidays—led to the significant increases of 15.3% and 14.2%, respectively, in the number of credit guarantee applications and consultations (639 and 645) from the previous month (554 and 565).

“In the years 2010 and 2011, consultations on the Housing Pension increased after the Korean thanksgiving holidays in September, and the number of new subscriptions increased in November. Against this backdrop, we expect that the number of new pensioners will rise sharply this November compared to the previous month,” explained one KHFC official.