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Lee orders review of loan extension, refinancing rules for owners of multiple homes

Published: 20 Feb. 2026, 16:36

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a senior presidential secretaries meeting at the Blue House in central Seoul on Feb. 19. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Lee Jae Myung said Friday that he has ordered officials to review loan extensions and refinancing for people who own multiple homes, signaling potential rule tightening that would treat those loans the same as new home purchases.

The comments, shared on X, come after weeks of the president calling for measures to curb housing prices, including discouraging speculative buying.

Lee said he directed the Cabinet and the presidential secretariat to assess the scale and status of such lending and prepare concrete regulatory measures.

“To build a country where the people are sovereign and all can be happy, we must eradicate the real estate unearned income republic,” he wrote.

Last week, Lee questioned whether borrowers who still hold multiple homes should continue to receive favorable treatment when their loans mature.

"Authorities have already provided tax incentives and given owners time to reduce their holdings. Is it fair to extend further benefits only to those who chose not to do so?" he wrote on X.

Some analysts interpreted his comments as aimed primarily at registered rental business operators rather than typical mortgage borrowers. Financial authorities are expected to consider tightening the rent-to-interest ratio, or RTI, which is used to assess loan extensions for rental operators.

Lee, however, suggested on Friday that the review should not stop there. “Why are we reviewing only RTI regulations?” he wrote, calling for a broader look at policy options.

He argued that extending or refinancing a loan after maturity amounts to new lending and should face comparable restrictions.

“If resolving such loans all at once would cause too great a shock, authorities could introduce a minimum grace period and phase it in gradually — for example, requiring 50 percent to be resolved within a year and 100 percent within two years," he said.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM JI-HYE [[email protected]]