Ruling and Opposition Parties Push to Exclude Rural Housing from Comprehensive Real Estate Taxation

Rep. Choo Kyung-ho of the People Power Party to Push for Amendment to Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Act
Ruling Party Also to Soon Propose Legislation... Accelerating Real Estate Tax Relief

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The ruling and opposition parties are pushing for a plan to exclude rural housing from the comprehensive real estate tax (종합부동산세) taxation. Ahead of the presidential election in March next year, they appear to be competitively easing real estate tax policies to win public favor.

According to the National Assembly on the 17th, Rep. Chu Kyung-ho of the People Power Party is preparing to propose an amendment to the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Act that excludes rural houses located in eup and myeon units from the count of houses subject to the tax. Rep. Chu is currently collecting signatures from lawmakers with the goal of proposing the bill this month and implementing it next year. The proposal mainly stipulates that a single homeowner who owns one rural house with a publicly announced price of 300 million KRW or less will be considered a single homeowner for tax purposes.

Rep. Chu stated, "Unlike the Restriction of Special Taxation Act, which excludes rural houses from the house count when imposing heavy capital gains tax, the current law does not have provisions to exclude rural houses from the house count when applying the single homeowner rule for the comprehensive real estate tax," adding, "There is a need to make an exception limited to rural areas."

Rep. Chu also plans to include in the amendment a provision that accessory land of other rural houses owned by those with two or more houses will not be included in the house count.

The ruling Democratic Party is also preparing an amendment to the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Act to exclude rural houses below certain price criteria from the tax. This follows presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung's active call for targeted easing of the comprehensive real estate tax and other real estate-related tax relief measures.

If the ruling and opposition parties propose amendments to the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Act, related discussions are expected to accelerate. However, regarding the easing of capital gains tax for multi-homeowners, not only within the ruling party but also the Blue House and the government have repeatedly expressed opposition, stating it "causes confusion in the market," showing a difference in stance compared to the comprehensive real estate tax amendment.

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