[Reporter’s Notebook] Multiple-home owners who want to shed the ‘multi-home owner’ label

"It’s been almost a year since I put my home on the market, and not a single person has come to see it."
This was the lament of an acquaintance I met recently. He owns one apartment in his hometown in North Chungcheong Province and another in Seoul, where he works, and wants to sell the North Chungcheong apartment, but there is no sign it will be sold. He said, "People say regional real estate is somewhat free from regulations on multiple-home owners, but I want to use this opportunity to get rid of the 'multi-home owner' label. I have no reason to sell the apartment in Seoul where I actually live, so I feel really stuck."
Even after May 9, multiple-home owners will not be subject to higher capital gains tax rates when selling homes located in non-regulated regions outside adjustment areas. However, those who own two or more homes, including properties in the provinces, and who are not registered as rental business operators, see little benefit in this and are eager to dispose of their properties quickly.
A closer look at regional real estate markets shows many cases where the sale price of relatively recent apartments is almost the same as the jeonse (lump-sum deposit lease) price. There are relatively few people willing to buy, while demand from tenants who just want to "stay for a while" keeps rising. Against this backdrop, the jeonse-to-sale price ratio has been steadily climbing toward 80 percent, reaching 79.6 percent in North Chungcheong Province, 79.2 percent in South Jeolla Province, 78.3 percent in North Jeolla Province, and 78.1 percent in South Gyeongsang Province. Buyers now hold the upper hand, and listings are piling up. Currently, the number of properties for sale across regional areas has increased by 1 to 10 percent compared with two months ago.
This trend overlaps with what is happening in the non-apartment market. For villas and officetels, demand for rentals far exceeds demand for purchases. According to an analysis by Ziptoss last year, reverse jeonse occurred in one out of every three villas, making it difficult for landlords to return tenants’ deposits. The recent jeonse fraud crisis began with reverse jeonse and jeonse homes that were effectively underwater, where jeonse deposits were close to or higher than sale prices. Neither landlords, tenants, nor the government wanted reverse jeonse, but it became unavoidable as living conditions and housing preferences changed. Like regional apartments with no redevelopment prospects, villas are also hard to sell.
Industry voices are calling for policies that view regional real estate and the non-apartment market through a similar lens. Just as the government is putting its heads together to "revive regional real estate," the non-apartment market, which has long served as a housing ladder for ordinary people, now feels its very survival is at risk. In an unstable monthly rent and jeonse market, if multiple-home owners across the country all come to fear the "multi-home owner" label, the housing ladder could collapse in an instant.
ming@fnnews.com Reporter