South Korea's household debt growth slowed down in November due to an increase in securitization of mortgage loans that eased growth in the nominal home-backed loans, central bank data showed Wednesday.

Debts owed by households to depository corporations, including banks and non-bank depository institutions, reached 653.1 trillion won (615.2 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of November, up 2 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The November growth was down from a 2.6 trillion won increase tallied in the prior month. The slower growth was attributable to a rise in transfer of mortgage loans by banks to the Korea Housing Finance Corp. (KHFC) for the securitization.

The so-called conforming loans extended by depository corporations can be transferred to the KHFC, which buy the loans from banks to securitize as mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The securitization has been viewed as the positive factor to boost long-term, fixed-rate mortgage loans.

Household loans extended by banks increased 1.1 trillion won in November, down from a 2 trillion won growth in October. When including the mortgage loans transferred to the KHFC, home-backed loans by banks expanded 3.8 trillion won in November, up from a 3. 2 percent growth in the prior month.

The actual mortgage loans rose recently thanks to the government's efforts to rejuvenate the slumping housing market. The government temporarily cut the acquisition and capital gains tax in late September. Apartment transactions in Seoul grew to 4, 700 in November, up from 4,000 in October and 2,100 in September.

Household debts extended by non-bank institutions, including mutual savings banks, credit unions, mutual credit institutions and community credit cooperatives, gained 0.9 trillion won in November, up from a 0.6 trillion won rise in the previous month.