“13 million won a month in interest alone” ... Lee Hae-in, owner of a 4-billion-won building, takes to TikTok to earn money for interest payments

[Financial News] Actress Lee Hae-in, who bought a small commercial building worth around 4 billion won after financing 80% of the purchase price with a loan, has finally taken to livestreaming on a short-form video platform, unable to cope with vacancies and interest payments. 

On October 31, Lee Hae-in said on her personal social media accounts, “My loan interest alone comes to 13 million won a month. I’ve been running around trying to fill vacancies and even looking for part-time work, but I couldn’t find a solution, so I’m starting a new challenge.” She announced what she called the “Building Owner Interest Repayment Project.” Her plan is to livestream on TikTok, a short-form video platform, and try to cover her bank loan interest with donations and income from her activities.
Lee had previously drawn attention when she disclosed that she took out a loan of about 3.2 billion won (an LTV of about 80%) to buy a building priced in the 4-billion-won range in February. But soon after the purchase, high vacancy rates and tenants’ overdue rent payments became problems at the same time, putting the operation of the property under severe strain.
She has called herself a “building owner who has to make a living” and also spoke of severe financial pressure in August, saying, “I thought I could buy a building and live without working, but it was a mirage.” After months of negative carry, with rental income failing to cover financing costs, she has now turned to platform livestreaming as an additional source of income.
In the real estate finance market, this case is being seen as a classic “boomerang effect of excessive debt-financed commercial property investment.” In a high-interest-rate environment, if rents in the commercial real estate market do not rise faster than borrowing costs, the full burden of repaying principal and interest falls on the borrower. Even if the Bank of Korea (BOK) seeks a gradual path of interest rate cuts, borrowers’ liquidity crises are likely to persist if an economic slowdown and weaker consumption delay the filling of vacancies in offline commercial districts.
A commercial real estate expert noted, “In a building investment financed with borrowed funds covering 70–80% or more of the purchase price, even a vacancy lasting just one or two months can cause the borrower’s entire cash flow to collapse. If you fail to adequately account for interest rate risks and a vacancy buffer when calculating returns, you can end up not as an ‘asset owner’ but as a ‘debt-vulnerable borrower.’”
Meanwhile, Lee Hae-in, who made her debut as an advertising model in 2005, rose to fame through the tvN variety show Fun TV Rollercoaster. In recent years, she has worked as a piano performance creator, among other things.

[email protected] Mun Yeong-jin Reporter