More newlyweds delay marriage registration to keep housing benefits

Longtime real estate broker Lim Mi-ae says she was surprised in 2014 when she met and brokered a deal for a newlywed couple in their 30s who had postponed registering their marriage to maintain housing benefits for singles. “Although I didn’t say anything to their face at the time, I thought they were crazy —undermining the idea of marriage just for financial gain,” Lim said. “But over the years, I’ve started seeing more and more couples like them.” Lim’s observation isn’t wrong. The number of newlyweds delaying official marriage registration with the government has nearly doubled over the past decade, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. In this year’s National Assembly audit data submitted to Rep. Chung Il-young of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the ministry reported that 19 percent of couples in 2024 delayed registering their marriage for over a year after their wedding. That figure has steadily risen from the 10.9 percent recorded in 2014, hitting 12.5 percent in 2017, 12.8 percent in 2020, 15.3 percent in 2022 and 16.8 percent in 2023. “This tWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times