If You Convert a Housing Subscription Deposit or Installment Savings Account, Will Your Payment History for Public Housing Carry Over? The Rules for Recognizing Previous Records Di
Even if you convert a housing subscription deposit or installment savings account into a comprehensive housing subscription savings account, your previous subscription period and payment amounts will not be retroactively recognized as subscription records for national housing. The extent to which previous records carry over depends on the types of housing you were originally eligible to apply for.
As of 2026-09-29, the conversion deadline has been extended to 2027-09-30. Therefore, the more important question now is not 'When do I need to convert?' but 'If I convert, how much of my long-standing account history will be recognized?'
When Do Payments Start Counting Toward National Housing Eligibility After Converting a Deposit or Installment Savings Account?
For people who convert a housing subscription deposit or installment savings account into a comprehensive housing subscription savings account, only payments made after conversion count toward the recognized number of payments and payment amounts for national housing applications.
The principal transferred from the existing deposit or installment savings account does not become a record of past qualifying payments for national housing.
For example, suppose you held a housing subscription deposit account for 10 years before converting it into a comprehensive housing subscription savings account.
For privately developed housing, you may retain your original subscription period under the deposit account. However, for national housing, which becomes newly available to you through conversion, those 10 years are not retroactively counted as your national housing subscription period.
In other words, you should not assume that converting an old account means it will be treated as an account with 10 years of history when applying for publicly offered housing.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also explained that previous subscription periods and payment records are recognized for housing types that applicants were already eligible to apply for using their original accounts. For housing types that become newly available through conversion, only the subscription period and payment records accumulated after conversion are recognized.
What Changes If You Convert a Housing Subscription Savings Account Instead?
The situation is reversed for holders of housing subscription savings accounts.
Because housing subscription savings accounts were originally eligible for national housing applications, converting one into a comprehensive housing subscription savings account allows holders to retain their existing national housing subscription period and recognized payment count and amounts.
However, for privately developed housing, which becomes newly available through conversion, the previous subscription period under the housing subscription savings account is not automatically added. The subscription period for privately developed housing begins on the conversion date. The entire amount previously paid into the housing subscription savings account is nevertheless recognized when determining whether the deposit requirement for privately developed housing has been met.
The following table provides the simplest way to understand the differences.
| Original Account | Originally Eligible Housing Type | Housing Type That Retains Previous Records | Newly Eligible Housing Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing subscription deposit account | Privately developed housing | Privately developed housing | National housing |
| Housing subscription installment savings account | Certain categories of privately developed housing | Privately developed housing | National housing |
| Housing subscription savings account | National housing | National housing | Privately developed housing |
The key point is that conversion does not mean all previous records are copied equally to both housing categories.
The Subscription Period and Number of Payments Are Not the Same Thing
If you are considering national housing, in particular, you should not make a decision based solely on how long you have held your account.
For general allocation of national housing, the number of payments and recognized payment amounts matter alongside the account subscription period. The maximum recognized payment amount per installment for national housing under a comprehensive housing subscription savings account is currently KRW 250,000. The timing of recognition may also vary depending on whether payments were made late.
Therefore, if you convert a housing subscription deposit or installment savings account into a comprehensive account and intend to apply for national housing, you should look beyond the size of your previous deposit and check how many qualifying payment installments and how much in recognized payments you have accumulated since conversion.
For privately developed housing, the focus is generally on checking the eligibility requirements in the relevant housing recruitment notice, including the subscription account holding period and the required deposit amount based on the region and housing size, rather than the number of payments.
This is why the same comprehensive housing subscription savings account is assessed differently for national housing and privately developed housing.
Check Whether You Can Apply for Your Preferred Housing Immediately After Conversion
The timing of conversion also matters.
In situations where conversion changes the types of housing you are eligible to apply for, such as when an existing housing subscription savings account holder converts to become eligible for privately developed housing, you must check whether the resident recruitment announcement date comes before or after the conversion date.
Banks provide separate guidance on which housing recruitment announcements are eligible after conversion, depending on the original account type. For example, when converting from a housing subscription savings account, applicants must check the restrictions on applying for housing covered by recruitment announcements issued before the conversion date. For housing subscription deposit and installment savings accounts, eligibility may also depend on the recruitment announcement date, the first application acceptance date, and the timing of conversion.
Therefore, if the recruitment announcement for a housing development you are interested in has already been published, it is best to avoid converting first and checking eligibility afterward.
You should review both the development's resident recruitment announcement and the conversion rules of the bank holding your account.
Decide Whether to Convert Based on Your Target Housing Type, Not Just How Long You Have Held the Account
If you hold a housing subscription deposit or installment savings account and plan to continue applying only for privately developed housing, the rules for recognizing your existing privately developed housing subscription records are important.
Conversely, if you want to apply for national housing in the future, conversion expands your options, but you must consider that your national housing payment history starts accumulating only after conversion.
The same principle applies to housing subscription savings account holders who want to expand their options to privately developed housing. Their existing national housing records carry over, but their subscription period for privately developed housing is not retroactively extended to include the years before conversion.
Ultimately, the order of checks is straightforward.
Your original account type → Whether you plan to apply for national housing or privately developed housing → The extent to which previous records are recognized → The recruitment announcement date for your preferred development → The timing of conversion.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the conversion deadline itself has been extended to 2027-09-30. In addition, an announcement made in September 2026 introduced an improvement allowing the subscription period of the original account to be recognized when calculating interest rates. This enables existing long-term subscribers to receive the annual interest rate of 3.1% applicable to the 2-year-or-longer category immediately after conversion. However, recognition of the subscription period for interest rate calculations must be distinguished from recognition of the subscription period for national and privately developed housing application eligibility.
What You Should Check Before Converting
If you are considering converting your housing subscription account, it is more accurate to first decide what type of housing you intend to apply for, rather than simply checking the date you originally opened the account.
If a housing subscription deposit or installment savings account holder is targeting national housing, payment records accumulated before conversion will not be retroactively recognized as qualifying national housing payments. If a housing subscription savings account holder is targeting privately developed housing, the previous subscription period under that account will not automatically carry over as the subscription period for privately developed housing.
Actual application eligibility may also vary depending on the region, housing type, allocation method, and qualifications as of the recruitment announcement date. Before submitting a final application, you should therefore check both the relevant resident recruitment announcement and the latest guidance from the bank that manages your housing subscription account.