Till debt do us part: Young Koreans turn marriage into a financial strategy

For a growing number of young Koreans, saying "I do" is becoming less about romance and more about real estate.

A 30-year-old office worker, surnamed Do, moved up her wedding from next year to September. She and her husband had already gotten married on paper in January.

After they legally registered their marriage, the couple qualified for a 600 million won ($392,000) mortgage based on their combined income and purchased an apartment in Seoul under joint ownership.

"On my income alone, I probably could have borrowed around 350 million won," Do said. "But by combining the income with my husband’s, we were able to buy the home we wanted much sooner. I think Seoul’s housing prices will continue to rise, and with the government tightening mortgage lending, we decided it was better to buy early, even if it's just a month earlier."

In Korea, legal marriage registration and the wedding ceremony are separate, allowing couples to become legally married regardless of the wedding date.

Another 30-year-old office worker, surnamed Kim, also legally married in April, months before her scheduled wedding ceremony.

The decrease in jeonse (lump-sum deposit) housing was a significant factor. 

Under jeonse, a tenant pays a large refundable lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent. 

"I had to register my marriage to qualify for my company's jeonse loan program, and finding a jeonse listing was nearly impossible," Kim said. "If I waited until after securing a property to complete the paperwork, someone else would have taken it. It wasn't an ideal choice, but I don't regret it."

Despite the broader trend of marrying later in life, more people in their 20s and 30s appear to believe that if they plan to get married eventually, they might as well do it sooner.

With home prices soaring and the burden of jeonse and monthly rent continuing to grow, combining incomes through marriage is increasingly seen as the quickest path to building wealth.

Newlyweds, for example, can take advantage of government-backed, low-interest mortgage programs. There are also special mortgage programs for families with newborns, allowing them to secure housing at lower interest rates than single-person households.

Newlyweds can also improve their chances of securing homes in Seoul and the surrounding area through special housing allocations for newly married couples and first-time homebuyers.

Recent reforms to the housing subscription system, such as the new policy of allowing both spouses to submit separate applications, have also led more newlyweds to take advantage of government housing policies to maximize their purchasing power.

On a practical level, living together also reduces fixed expenses such as rent and utilities.

"Many people believed they needed a solid financial foundation and all the right conditions before getting married in the past," a representative from Duo, one of Korea’s biggest matchmaking companies, said. "Recently, however, more people in their 20s and 30s believe they can build that foundation together."

The shift in trend toward earlier marriages is also reflected in official statistics.

The marriage rate among women aged 25 to 29 rose to 44.3 marriages per 1,000 people last year, up 4 from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics on July 5. For men in the same age group, the figure rose by 2.2 to 25 marriages per 1,000 people.

After falling to record lows in 2023 — 34.2 for women and 19.2 for men — the rates have risen over the past two consecutive years.

Marriage rates also increased among people aged 30 to 34, reaching 57.6 marriages per 1,000 women and 53.6 per 1,000 men.

For men in that age group, it marked the first time the rate had exceeded 50 marriages per 1,000 people since 2019.

The total number of marriages tells a similar story.

The number of marriages declined steadily among women aged 25 to 29, from 109,300 in 2015 to 55,700 in 2023. The number then rebounded to 64,300 in 2024 and 69,300 last year.

Among women aged 30 to 34, marriages fell from 96,100 in 2015 to 61,800 in 2021, then rose to 64,200 in 2022 and surged to 95,300 last year.

The trend was similar among men. Marriages among men aged 25 to 29 and those aged 30 to 34 rose to 42,500 and 98,700, respectively, last year, marking the second and third consecutive years of growth.

In Seoul, where young adults account for a large share of the population, the average age at first marriage declined slightly last year to 34.18 for men and 32.40 for women from 34.32 and 32.44, respectively, a year earlier.

Nationwide, the average age at first marriage for men also edged down to 33.85 from 33.97. For women, it remained largely unchanged at 31.62.

Women's average age at first marriage remained largely flat at 31.62. Still, the official figure may overstate the age at which couples actually marry, as many delay legally registering their marriages unless they need to do so for practical reasons, such as obtaining a mortgage.

The share of couples who delayed registering their marriages increased from 10.9 percent in 2014 to 19 percent last year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Budget.

A 27-year-old office worker surnamed Kwon, who married last year, is hoping to have a child next year.

"People around me said getting married in my mid-20s was too early," Kwon said. "But I wanted to find emotional and financial stability within my own family as soon as possible. I also wanted to have children while I was still relatively young and healthy."

Despite the trend in earlier marriages, many young people continue to forgo marriage due to unstable job markets and uncertainty about the future. The only way to reduce polarization, experts say, is to give more young people quality jobs and opportunities to buy homes. 

“The divide could deepen between young people who marry early and build a financial foundation, and young people with low incomes who delay marriage and miss more opportunities to build assets,” said You Hye-mi, a professor in the College of Economics and Finance at Hanyang University. “The fact that some people already have the conditions to marry early, such as a good job or parental support, is itself a result of polarization and a seed of further polarization.”

BY KIM KYUNG-HEE [[email protected]]