Household debt growth hit a record low in August as household loans dropped due to the sluggish property market, data showed Thursday.

A Bank of Korea report showed that the total household loans from local banks and non-bank institutions reached 649.8 trillion won ($597.2 billion) in August, up by only 4.1 percent year-on-year.

It is the slowest growth since October in 2003 when the central bank started to compile related data. The average growth was 6 percent to 8 percent, and hit the highest 8.8 percent in August 2011.

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)