Market Stirred Up Over Tax Revisions... Tenants Fear Landlords Moving In

[Anchor]

The government's proposed revisions to the comprehensive real estate tax and capital gains tax have sent ripples through the real estate market in Gangnam. With landlords increasingly likely to move into their properties themselves, housing anxiety among tenants is also growing.

Reporter Jeon Hyeong-u has the details.

[Reporter]

A real estate agent in Apgujeong-dong, Seoul, said inquiries have been flooding in following the announcement of the tax code revisions.

Most apartments in this area are ultra-high-priced units ranging from 6 to 7 billion won. Starting in 2028, even single-home resident owners will see their comprehensive real estate taxes increase by 20 to 30 million won.

[Park In-gu / Real Estate Agent, Apgujeong-dong : Consultations are pouring in continuously, right up until just a moment ago. Some elderly retirees, finding their current taxes already burdensome, were considering selling.]

In particular, they believe that the introduction of a cap on capital gains tax deductions will deal a shock to the market.

[Park In-gu / Real Estate Agent, Apgujeong-dong : Capital gains range anywhere from 4 billion won to as much as 12 billion won. If a situation arises where only 1 billion won is deducted, those individuals will have no choice but to contemplate selling.]

Unlike Gangnam, which is centered around ultra-high-priced apartments, there are forecasts that apartments in the 2 billion won range along the Han River belt, such as Mapo and Dongjak, might actually see a reduction in holding tax burdens, leading to market strength.

[Ham Young-jin / Head of Real Estate Research Lab, Woori Bank : Mid-to-low-priced areas with a demand for shifting to owner-occupancy for home purchases are expected to maintain price increases and a robust transaction trend similar to this year.]

Anxiety is already being detected in the lease market.

This is because landlords who own a single home without residing in it are expected to increasingly move in themselves to avoid tax burdens.

[Kim Yeon-sook / Real estate agent, Jamwon-dong : This morning, a client who owns a slightly larger unit and is currently living on a jeonse lease asked me, "What should I do?" So I told her, "Move in."]

Tenants' worries are also mounting.

[Jeonse Tenant : Landlords are all going to try to move into their own homes. Since there are many tenants like us who need to find new homes, won't it become increasingly difficult to find a place?]

There are numerous predictions that a jeonse shortage will worsen, centered around preferred areas, ultimately leading to rising jeonse and wolse (monthly rent) prices.

(Camera filming: Seol Chi-hwan, Video editing: So Ji-hye)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.