Korea Renaissance: Is the Household Asset Move to Equities Sustainable? Possibly

Research evidence excerpt

Korea Renaissance: Is the Household Asset Move to Equities Sustainable? Possibly

Asia Pacific InsightM

Executive Summary

Korean household assets have grown 91% since 2000 – but

equities have not been prominent in the mix

Korea has shown the fastest expansion of household assets among major

economies over the past quarter-century. However, the distinctive feature of

Korea's wealth accumulation has been that the rise in real assets contributed the

most to this surge, in contrast to the growth seen in DMs, which has been led by

financial assets. With a heavy bias toward real estate and nearly half of financial

assets held in cash and deposits, we see significant room for a rotation toward

equity holdings this time.

Korean households have recently shown a major shift in asset

allocation — the proportion of equities has risen with a stronger

bourse

After decades of accumulating wealth primarily through real estate, with a

persistent bias toward cash and deposits, household equity holdings surged 48%Y

in 2025, against a prior decade-long average increase of just 7.4%. This marks a

striking inflection in Korean households' appetite for risk assets. We view this as

directionally positive for long-term financial asset management, coupled with

potential near-term risk factors.

The tendencies of Korean retail investors toward equity

investing appear to be evolving in a positive way

In our deep analysis published in July 2020 (link), we found retail investors to be

seekers of volatility and chasers of themes with rather short-term investment

horizons. However, we believe that overall retail investors have become smarter

thanks to:

1. Improved access to higher quality information.

2. AI providing a more level playing field through improved information

access and analysis.

3.