With this year's posted prices for dwellings in Seoul jumping sharply, led by multifamily dwellings (apartments), a forecast said the dwelling ownership tax revenue calculated on that basis will increase by more than 1 trillion won.
According to the "2026 forecast for ownership tax revenue from dwellings" report that the National Assembly Budget Office submitted to Representative Lee Jong-uk of the People Power Party on the 16th, this year's dwelling ownership tax revenue is estimated at 8.7803 trillion won. That is about 15.3% (1.1671 trillion won) more than last year's estimated ownership tax revenue (7.6132 trillion won). The dwelling ownership tax consists of the local government tax property tax and the national tax comprehensive real estate tax.
For property tax, the tax base is the posted price for each item multiplied by the fair market value ratio (fair ratio), and for the comprehensive real estate tax, the tax base is the amount obtained by applying the fair ratio to the portion of the taxpayer's aggregate posted prices that exceeds the taxable threshold.
According to the government's announcement, this year's posted prices for standard dwellings (single-family dwellings) nationwide are projected to rise an average of 2.51% from last year, and posted prices for multifamily dwellings will rise 9.16%. The increase rate for posted prices of multifamily dwellings in Seoul is 18.67%.
Reflecting this, the National Assembly Budget Office estimated this year's dwelling ownership taxes as follows: property tax at 7.2814 trillion won, up 13.4% (859.3 billion won) from last year, and comprehensive real estate tax at 1.499 trillion won, up 25.9% (307.9 billion won).
On this basis, the average property tax per dwelling this year is analyzed at 358,160 won, and the average comprehensive real estate tax per taxpayer at 3,292,111 won. Compared with last year, property tax rises by 42,267 won and comprehensive real estate tax by 676,211 won.
Because the National Assembly Budget Office could not precisely verify the number of dwellings and holders subject to property tax and comprehensive real estate tax this year, it estimated this year's ownership tax revenue by applying the change in posted prices to the 2024 tax data. In 2024, there were 20.33 million property tax cases for dwellings, and 455,331 people were subject to the comprehensive real estate tax.
As posted prices for multifamily dwellings have surged this year, centered on Seoul, increasing the number of dwellings subject to the comprehensive real estate tax, the total ownership tax revenue for dwellings, including single-family dwellings, could exceed the National Assembly Budget Office's estimate.
Earlier, when the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced this year's draft posted prices for multifamily dwellings on the 17th of last month, its released statistics showed that, based on one household with one dwelling, multifamily dwellings with posted prices exceeding 1.2 billion won—subject to the comprehensive real estate tax—numbered 487,362 nationwide, up about 53.3% (169,364) from last year's 317,998.
Representative Lee Jong-uk said, "With the surge in posted prices, this year's ownership taxes have already begun to increase by more than 1 trillion won, effectively raising taxes on the public, and as the number of those subject to the comprehensive real estate tax grows significantly, ownership taxes are likely to increase more than the National Assembly Budget Office's forecast," adding, "We need solutions to ease the tax burden and housing insecurity."