"Rather Than Selling My House, I'll Gift It" Apartment Gift Boom Amid Tax Bombshell

Record High of Over 21,000 Cases in Gyeonggi from January to September
Daegu, Chungnam, Gyeongbuk, Jeonbuk, and Ulsan Also Set New Records

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Gang-wook] As apartment prices continue to rise and various real estate tax burdens increase, more multi-homeowners are choosing to gift properties to their children or family members instead of selling them. Following Seoul, Gyeonggi Province has surpassed its record high this year.

According to the Korea Real Estate Board on the 14th, the number of apartment gifts nationwide from January to September this year totaled 63,054 cases. Although this does not reach the 65,574 cases recorded during the same period last year (when the annual total was the highest at 91,866 cases), it is the second highest number since related statistics began in 2006.

In particular, Gyeonggi Province saw 21,041 apartment gifts from January to September this year, surpassing last year's previous record of 18,555 cases during the same period.

Yangpyeong-gun (263 cases) and Osan-si (812 cases) experienced a surge in gift cases, increasing by 17.5 times and 5.6 times respectively compared to last year, setting new all-time highs.

Additionally, Suwon-si (3,614 cases), Gwacheon-si (1,125 cases), Uiwang-si (371 cases), Anseong-si (281 cases), and Pocheon-si (82 cases) also saw gift cases more than double compared to last year, reaching record highs.

Notably, in Gwacheon, gifts accounted for a remarkable 53.9% of all transactions this year, including sales, judgments, exchanges, gifts, pre-sale rights, resale of pre-sale rights, and other ownership transfers.

In the metropolitan area, Seoul (17,364 cases) and Incheon (4,791 cases), which had the highest number of gifts from January to September last year, saw a slight decline this year with 10,804 and 4,130 cases respectively.

Nationwide, the number of gifts in local areas reached 26,554 cases this year, breaking last year's previous record of 24,864 cases. Regions such as Daegu (4,866 cases), Chungnam (2,494 cases), Gyeongbuk (2,344 cases), Jeonbuk (1,715 cases), and Ulsan (1,378 cases) also recorded the highest number of gifts ever this year.

This nationwide resurgence of the gifting trend following last year is attributed to the continuous rise in apartment prices and the increased burden of capital gains tax and comprehensive real estate tax on multi-homeowners.

The top capital gains tax rate for multi-homeowners was raised from 65% to 75% starting in June. Including local taxes, the rate reaches as high as 82.5%.

Moreover, the comprehensive real estate tax to be billed this month is expected to increase significantly for multi-homeowners, with rates rising from 0.6?3.2% last year to 1.2?6.0% this year, marking the highest burden ever.

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