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| A man watches apartment complexes in Seoul, Dec. 19. Yonhap |
By Anna J. Park
The number of homes owned by the country's top 100 people, in terms of the number of homes they have, exceeded 22,000 as of November this year. The number is up by around 2,000 compared to last year.
According to Statistics Korea's data submitted to opposition lawmaker Rep. Kim Hoi-jae, the exact number of homes held by the 100 people, as of Nov. 1, stands at 22,582, which is 1,893 more, or a 9.1 percent jump, from the figure of last year. The aggregate government-declared asset value of the homes reaches 2.95 trillion won ($2.3 billion), a 17 percent increase compared to a year ago.
On average, this means that one person out of the top 100 holds 226 homes, and the total value of all their declared assets stands at about 30 billion won.
The opposition lawmaker criticized that the Yoon administration's real estate policies encourages speculative investment by owners of multiple homes. The government announced Wednesday in its economic policy directions for the next year that it aims to lower taxation and loan regulations for owners of multiple homes.
"Real estate policies drawn up by the Yoon administration are comprised of measures that increase speculative gains of owners of multiple homes. The government, which should be focusing on stabilizing the housing market, is fueling the real estate speculation of the wealthy," Rep. Kim said.
The 2023 economic policy directions announced on Wednesday by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, along with related ministries, stated that the government will lower the real estate acquisition tax by around half for owners of multiple homes.
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea said Thursday that it cannot agree with the Yoon government's real estate policy, which has been slashing a series of real estate taxes for owners of multiple homes, including the comprehensive real estate holding tax, capital gains tax and real estate acquisition tax.
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