Young married South Koreans are pretending to be single in order to skip the line for affordable housing

• Some Korean couples hold off on registering their marriages for years to avoid high housing prices.
• The South Korean government offers affordable housing to young couples, but waiting lists are long.
• Additionally, most double-income couples do not qualify for these housing options.

Some South Korean couples may be holding off on registering their marriages to make it easier to buy their first home.

According to a report from the Korean outlet Chosun Ilbo, many couples may be living together after holding "informal" wedding ceremonies.

But after the big day, these couples sometimes elect not to register their marriage in the hope of getting assigned affordable housing more quickly or to avoid having to pay high housing taxes.

Real estate prices have steadily risen since President Moon Jae-in took office in 2017, a trend that has made purchasing a starter home much less viable for regular South Koreans.

The latest government statistics from Korea indicated that a total of 213,513 couples got hitched last year. This was a 10.7% drop from 2019 and the lowest number of marriages in the country since 1981.

While there are affordable housing options for young couples, there are long waiting lists, and double-income households (where both husband and wife hold full-time jobs) might not necessarily qualify. Additionally, some couples told the South Korean news site that they stood a higher chance of getting a new apartment if husband and wife applied separately instead of as a family unit.

Clerical assistant Im Seo-yeon, 31, told Insider that she and her 36-year-old partner do not qualify for any grants and have resorted to renting an apartment in the outskirts of Seoul because they can't afford anything closer to the city center. They have also not registered their marriage, hoping that they will be able to obtain affordable housing more quickly by applying under just her name.

"It's very expensive and quite difficult to find a nice place to live in a good district in Seoul. We are quite happy in our rented apartment for now, but I am looking forward to the day we can get a home of our own," she said.

And for others, their savings are simply not enough to purchase a home.

David Min, 29, who works in the transportation and logistics industry, told Insider that he had held an "informal" wedding ceremony with his wife a year ago but had not registered their marriage as they "could not afford a home just yet."

"We don't have enough savings to buy an apartment together yet. So there is no rush to officially register our marriage, as the eligibility for housing benefits provided by the government lasts for seven years only," Min said.

"I am considering just buying a house under my name if it means that we will move up faster on the waiting list," he added.

A 34-year-old newlywed who lives in Seoul told Chosun Ilbo that he had been married for three years but not yet registered his marriage because he was trying to avoid the high taxes that the couple would have to fork out with if they did so.

Both husband and wife had bought homes before they married and would have to foot exorbitant taxes as multiple-home owners if they registered their union.

"Taxes rose for people owning more than one home, and newlywed couples are exempt from transfer taxes for only five years if they sell one of their homes," the man told the outlet. "I intend to sell one (property) once I see how much further the prices rise."

Jeong-Woo Koo, associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, told Chosun Ilbo that the South Korean government needs to examine "why this phenomenon is happening, and come up with solutions."

"The fact that married couples are postponing registering their marriage shows just how bad the housing shortage is, not to mention skyrocketing prices of apartments," Koo said.