President Lee Jae-myung mentioned a plan to reduce permanent benefits for registered rental dwellings. It was the second straight day targeting rental business operators.
On Feb. 9, the president posted on X (formerly Twitter), saying, "If registered rental multiple-home holdings, after the mandatory rental period and the period exempt from certain capital gains tax surcharges have passed, come onto the market like ordinary multiple-home holdings, there will be a supply effect of hundreds of thousands of units," and noted, "Now that there are alternative investment vehicles, it is time to change our thinking."
The president said, "About 300,000 registered rental dwellings in Seoul (about 50,000 apartments) receive preferential treatment in the form of acquisition tax, property tax, and comprehensive real estate tax reductions, and permanent exclusion from multiple-home capital gains tax surcharges," pointing out, "After the mandatory rental period ends, the reductions in property tax and comprehensive real estate tax disappear, but the preferential 'exclusion from multiple-home capital gains tax surcharges' is set to continue."
He went on, "There is also an opinion that, although they are the same multiple-home holdings, there is no need to grant permanent preferential treatment just because they were once registered rentals," adding, "Compensation for mandatory leasing may be sufficient with acquisition, holding, and property tax reductions during the rental period and exclusion from capital gains tax surcharges for a certain period after leasing ends."
The president also effectively expressed the view that permanent benefits for registered rental dwellings should be reduced, asking, "A certain period for disposal opportunities should be given, but wouldn't it be fair for various tax systems for registered rental dwellings after the end of the rental period to be the same as those for ordinary rental dwellings?"
However, the president said, "Because the burden would be too great if the preferential exclusion from capital gains tax surcharges for registered rental dwellings were scrapped immediately, there could be options to eliminate it after a certain period (for example, one year) or to phase it out (abolishing half the preference for one to two years, abolishing all of it after two years, etc.)," and added, "There is also an opinion to limit the scope to apartments only."
He emphasized, "In a capitalist society, it is basically free to own multiple homes or to live in ultra-high-priced gold-value dwellings, but a certain share of responsibility must be imposed for the social problems that arise from it."