Younger cohorts of elderly Koreans less willing to bequeath their housing
- Date 2014-09-18
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Younger cohorts of elderly Koreans less willing to bequeath their housing
The number of elderly citizens in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province unwilling to leave their housing to their children is constantly rising; the biggest support for JTYK subscription comes from spouses
On the 18th, Korea Housing Finance Corporation (HF) announced the results of the “2014 JTYK Demand Survey,” which was conducted from May 20th through July 3rd on 3,000 home-owning elderly households aged 60-84 and 600 households of JooTaekYeonKeum (JTYK) subscribers.
The survey indicates an increasing share of elderly homeowners living in Seoul and its vicinity who are unwilling to bequeath their housing to their children—especially among the younger cohorts of the elderly population.
* JooTaekYeonKeum (JTYK) is a state-guaranteed reverse mortgage loan in which senior citizens aged 60 or above provide their owned homes as collateral and receive living expenses for their post-retirement life in the form of monthly pension benefits either for the rest of their life or for a certain period of time.
Younger segments of the elderly population are less willing to leave their housing to their children
Among the general population of elderly homeowners who are not subscribed to JTYK, the younger segments were more reluctant to pass on their housing through inheritance. The highest figure of 31.6% was found among those aged 60-64, followed by the age groups of 65-69 (25.7%), 70-74 (22.0%), 75-79 (16.5%), and 80-84 (16.2%).
A regional breakdown shows that 34.0% of the respondents in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province do not want to leave their housing to their children. The figures have increased constantly from 21.1% in 2010, 26.9% in 2012, and 31.1% in 2013 to 34.0% in 2014.
Four out of 10 elderly homeowners feel their monthly income is not enough
Four out of 10 elderly homeowners felt their monthly income was not enough. Their desired monthly average income was 1.88 million won, while their actual monthly average income stood at only 1.2 million won.
Of those elderly homeowners surveyed, 37.0% had one million won or less in monthly average income, showing that their household income was insufficient in general although they owned their homes.
As for the average monthly income by age group, the figures for the general elderly homeowners went down from 2.49 million won for 60-64 to 1.46 million won for 70-74 while remaining relatively stable for JTYK subscribers (i.e. 2.03 million won for 60-64 to 1.55 million won for 70-74). From the age of 70, the monthly average income of JTYK subscribers was found to exceed that of general elderly homeowners.
Spouses are the biggest supporters of JTYK subscription
The survey also shows that 86.0% of JTYK users consulted with others before proceeding with subscription. The biggest support for JTYK subscription came from spouses (47.5%), followed by sons (31.4%), daughters (14.5%), and sons/daughters-in-law (2.7%).
The respondents cited “lifelong payment,” “lifelong residence,” and “coverage for both the husband and wife” as the key advantages of JTYK, which are similar to “amount received on a monthly basis,” “lifelong payment,” and “lifelong residence” as the major considerations for those joining JTYK.
Note: The survey results constitute quantitative information pursuant to Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Statistics Act and Article 2, Paragraph 5 of the Enforcement Decree thereof and are not subject to the Statistics Act.