Yongin Mayor Owns 14 Houses... One in Four Metropolitan Area Local Leaders Are Multiple Homeowners

Analysis of Property Disclosures by Basic Local Government Heads in the Seoul Metropolitan Area by Kyungsilryeon
16 out of 65 Own Two or More Houses... 15 Own Three or More
Average Real Estate Assets: 1.08 Billion KRW

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] A survey revealed that one in four basic local government heads in the Seoul metropolitan area owns two or more houses, making them multi-homeowners.

The Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) announced on the 20th, "After analyzing the total assets listed in the public disclosure gazettes of public officials, 24% of the 65 basic local government heads in the Seoul metropolitan area, including Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and Incheon, were multi-homeowners." Anseong City, which elected its head through a by-election this year, was excluded from the analysis due to lack of asset disclosure. By political party, there were 61 from the Democratic Party and 4 from the United Future Party.

◆ Baek Gun-gi, Mayor of Yongin, owns 14 houses = Looking at the housing ownership status of the basic local government heads in the metropolitan area and their spouses, 16 heads (24%) own two or more houses. Among them, five own three or more houses. Fifteen heads were without houses. In terms of the number of houses, Baek Gun-gi, Mayor of Yongin, owned a total of 14 houses, ranking as the largest homeowner. Mayor Baek owns one apartment in Seocho-gu, Seoul, and 13 multi-family houses in Yongsan-gu owned by his spouse. Seo Cheol-mo, Mayor of Hwaseong, followed with a total of nine houses. Mayor Seo owns one detached house in Chungcheong Province and eight small-scale public apartments in Goyang and Gunpo cities. The CCEJ pointed out, "Since these areas are judged to be subject to redevelopment or reconstruction, suspicion of real estate speculation cannot be dismissed." Additionally, Seong Chang-hyun, Mayor of Yongsan District, and Moon Seok-jin, Mayor of Seodaemun District, each own four houses. Mayor Choi Dae-ho of Anyang owns three houses, placing him on the list of those owning three or more houses.

◆ Average real estate assets of 1.08 billion KRW = Based on the publicly announced land prices, the basic local government head with the highest reported real estate assets was Kim Young-jong, Mayor of Jongno District, who declared about 7.6 billion KRW. Following him were Jung Soon-gyun, Mayor of Gangnam District (7.01 billion KRW), Cho Eun-hee, Mayor of Seocho District (5.01 billion KRW), Eom Tae-jun, Mayor of Icheon (4.7 billion KRW), and Baek Gun-gi, Mayor of Yongin (4 billion KRW).

The average declared assets of basic local government heads in the metropolitan area were 1.54 billion KRW, of which real estate assets averaged 1.08 billion KRW. Notably, the top 10 in real estate declared assets owned an average of about 3.9 billion KRW worth of real estate per person.

View of Seoul apartment complex from the 63 Observatory./Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Using KB Kookmin Bank real estate market prices, the CCEJ investigated changes in real estate prices for 35 of the 65 basic local government heads in the metropolitan area who own apartments (including pre-sale rights) or officetels. From May 2017, when the Moon Jae-in administration began, to July 2020, the average price per person rose by 290 million KRW (41%). The Mayor of Gangnam District, who owns one apartment and one officetel in Gangnam-gu and Songpa-gu respectively, saw the value of these properties increase from 3.38 billion KRW to 4.61 billion KRW, a rise of 1.23 billion KRW, the largest increase. Among the top 10 by price increase, the average rise per person was 700 million KRW, with a growth rate of 53% during this period.

When comparing the declared asset values reported in March of this year with the market prices in July for the 35 owners of apartments or officetels, the price reflection rate was only 56%. The CCEJ emphasized, "House prices are rising rapidly, but because assets are declared based on official prices that do not reflect market prices, the underreporting of assets is at a serious level," and added, "High-ranking public officials, including basic local government heads, should lead by example and declare their assets based on market-reflected values."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.