8-Year-Old Chinese Landlord Era... Won Hee-ryong "Crackdown on Foreign Real Estate Speculation"

Posting YouTube Video on Foreigners' Real Estate Speculation
"Widespread Reverse Discrimination Against Nationals... If Ignored, It's Not a Nation"

"While young people are struggling with rising housing prices, there are cases where some foreigners evade financial regulations and taxes to engage in real estate speculation. This is a clear reverse discrimination. If this is left unchecked, it is no longer a nation."

Won Hee-ryong, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and former 'Daejangdong 1st-rate Instructor,' once again took to the blackboard to address the issue of foreign real estate speculation. On the 17th, Minister Won uploaded a 12-minute and 26-second video titled "The Reality of Foreign Real Estate Speculation and Fundamental Prevention Measures" on his YouTube channel 'Won Hee-ryong TV.' He directly pointed out the problems regarding the controversy over reverse discrimination against domestic residents in real estate loans and taxation. He said, "We should not discriminate against or ban foreigners themselves," but added, "There are foreigners who evade financial regulations and taxes to engage in real estate speculation, and reverse discrimination in regulations between domestic and foreign nationals is also occurring."

Minister Won identified four representative problems associated with foreign transactions in the domestic real estate market: ▲Insufficient statistics related to foreign real estate, ▲Difficulty in identifying foreign households, ▲Reverse discrimination against domestic residents in loan regulations, and ▲Illegal leasing by foreigners.

First, Minister Won pointed out, "Accurate and high-quality statistics on foreigners' sales transactions, rental and tenant status, as well as by type, nationality, and purchase purpose, are not being produced." He continued, "In Korea's financial and tax systems (such as comprehensive real estate tax), the basic unit is the household, such as 'one household, one house,' but foreigners are only registered and identified as individuals." He added, "Since proof of family relations or household registration is not mandatory, foreigners fall into blind spots in financial and tax regulations."

He also pointed out that regulations such as the '1.5 billion KRW loan ban' cause reverse discrimination against domestic residents. Minister Won said, "If the apartment price exceeds 1.5 billion KRW, domestic residents cannot get loans at all, and if they try to get loans within that limit, it is only possible within strict ranges based on collateral ratio, debt repayment ability, and income level." He added, "On the other hand, foreigners raise loans in their home countries and effectively evade loan regulations, flowing speculative funds into the real estate market." Issues related to violations of the Real Name Real Estate System were also highlighted.

The blind spots are also growing as the number of 'foreign landlords' increases. Minister Won said, "If rental income is earned, taxes must be paid on it," but "in the case of foreigners, problems such as tax evasion and avoidance of administrative guidance and supervision are emerging." He mentioned that just as 'ghost bank accounts (alias accounts)' are used when problems arise in financial transactions, there are also 'ghost landlords' in the real estate market. He said, "Foreigners may lend only the name of the house, and even if problems arise later, they may put forward people willing to serve prison time on their behalf to gain profits, turning real estate transactions into criminal-level activities."

In response, Minister Won said, "A full-scale survey on foreign real estate transactions will be conducted, and strict statistics will be compiled accordingly." He stated, "Based on scientific data, we will block foreign speculation and guarantee the rights of the majority of good-faith foreigners who should be protected, according to the principle of international equality." He also said, "In cases of violations of the Real Name Real Estate Act or illegal leasing businesses, domestic laws will be applied for punishment, and mandatory reporting of foreign family household registrations will be enforced so that violations can be penalized." Furthermore, he said, "Domestic residents suffer from stringent loan regulations and income verification, and foreigners should not be exempt from this," adding, "The government should have the authority to investigate these matters."

Minister Won also said, "Immediately after taking office as minister in May, an emergency investigation into foreign real estate transactions was conducted," and "Based on this, strong anti-speculation measures are being established." He emphasized, "While striving for market normalization and restoration of tax justice, we will crack down on real estate speculation regardless of whether it is by foreigners or domestic residents."

Meanwhile, on the 6th, Minister Won uploaded a video titled "A New Type of Jeonse Fraud That Even the Minister of Land Could Have Fallen For!! Its Reality and Countermeasures?" He announced that he would cooperate with the police to conduct intensive investigations and crackdowns on new villa jeonse fraud, and promised a large-scale cleanup of false listings and price information on real estate apps and internet real estate portals. He also pledged to work with the National Tax Service to devise measures so that tenants can be informed if landlords are delinquent on national taxes.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is conducting a joint planned investigation into speculative real estate transactions by foreigners with the Ministry of Justice, National Tax Service, Customs Service, and others until September. Numerous suspicious cases of illegal transactions have already been detected.

Examples include an 8-year-old Chinese child purchasing an apartment in Gyeonggi Province and an American teenager buying a 2.7 billion KRW house in Yongsan, Seoul. Additionally, a 40-year-old American owns 45 houses in the Seoul metropolitan and Chungcheong areas, and a Chinese female student on a student visa purchased two villas in Incheon, collecting monthly rent of 900,000 KRW.

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