[2020 National Audit] 228 Seoul Subway Shops Closed This Year Due to COVID-19

Jinseongjun Lawmaker "September Vacancy Rate at 31%... Rent Reduction Movement Must Spread"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim On-yu] Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), a total of 228 stores located in Seoul subway stations have closed this year.

According to data submitted by Seoul Metro to Jin Seong-jun, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, a total of 228 stores located along subway lines 1 to 8 closed between January and September this year. This is approximately 2.8 times higher than the 81 stores closed during the same period last year.

As store closures continued, the vacancy rate also increased. The vacancy rate was about 17.4% in September 2018, about 12.3% in September last year, but it recorded about 31.9% in September this year. This means that one out of every three stores is vacant.

Comparing rental losses due to vacancies over the past three years, this year’s losses were overwhelmingly higher. Losses due to vacancies were about 2.3 billion KRW in 2018 and about 2 billion KRW in 2019, but this year it reached about 5.8 billion KRW, which is greater than the combined amount of the previous two years.

Due to the spread of COVID-19, rent arrears have also surged. As of the end of September this year, rent arrears exceeded 1 billion KRW.

In response, Seoul City has been providing a 50% rent reduction for stores in underground shopping areas and subway stations for four months from September to December.

Assemblyman Jin said, "Self-employed business owners have been hit hard by this unprecedented infectious disease crisis," and emphasized, "Seoul City should take the lead in ensuring that the commercial rent reduction claim system is activated and that proactive rent reduction measures based on the spread of COVID-19 can spread to the private sector as well."

Regarding this, Seo Jeong-hyeop, Acting Mayor of Seoul, said, "We understand that the most vulnerable groups due to COVID-19 are small business owners and the self-employed," and added, "Since the first half of the year, we have been devising various support measures such as small business funding and survival funds for small business owners."

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