Property transactions by foreigners being investigated

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Property transactions by foreigners being investigated

A view of apartments in Seoul. [YONHAP]

A view of apartments in Seoul. [YONHAP]

Real estate transactions by foreigners are the target of a joint investigation by some of Korea's most powerful government bodies, and some aggressive reforms are being discussed related to property businesses owned by non-Koreans.
 
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Justice, the National Tax Service (NTS) and Korea Customs Service said on Thursday they will be examining 20,038 apartment transactions made since 2020.
 
They are focusing on 1,145 of those that appeared to involve false reporting of the price, purchasing with the use of another name, illegal transfer of the asset and other possible infractions.
 
The investigation will run through September with results being announced in October, though the investigation could be extended.
 
While the number of real estate transactions by foreigners are fewer than 1 percent of all such transactions, the total has been rising in recent years, up 34 percent from 2017 to 2021 to 8,186.
 
In one case being examined, an American purchaser bought 45 apartments without properly reporting the transfer of money to the central bank.
 
In another case, an 8-year-old Chinese citizen purchased an apartment within the greater Seoul area, while in another case, a 17-year-old American bought a 2.7 billion won apartment in Yongsan. A Chinese student purchased two apartments in Incheon and has been pocketing the rent. These cases raise questions about the source of funds.
 
Use of cryptocurrencies for purchases has caught the attention of the NTS.
 
While the Moon Jae-in government made domestic borrowing for property difficult, the measures had no effect on overseas funding, raising issues of unfairness.  
 
"We will take this as an opportunity to overall review the management system on real estate transactions in order to resolve the controversy of a reverse discrimination against Koreans while stabilizing the real estate market," said Jin Hyun-hwan, the Land Ministry's land policy director general. "We will take aggressive actions, including a swift push on improving the system against speculative real estate transactions by foreigners."  
 
Measures include requiring foreigners without a permanent address in Korea to designate a local representative when purchasing property and clarifying laws regarding the leasing out of properties by foreigners.
 
Currently, the law is ambiguous as to which visa holder is allowed to register a property rental business. Under the reforms, foreigners with some types of F2 visas and those with F4, F5 and F6 visas will be allowed to register this sort of company.
 
The ministry said the government will create a statistical system to monitor the housing unit ownership status of foreigners starting next year.  
 
 
 

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]
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