South Korean Minister of Finance Hong Nam-ki, the architect of rules aimed at protecting tenants and slowing deposit increases, has himself been forced to look for a new home as landlords react to the rules by quickly replacing tenants so they can bump up deposits.
Hong is also faced with broadening his search, as the average deposit where he lives 20 minutes from parliament has soared by one-third since his housing rules took effect in July, with the irony of his predicament setting the Internet alight.
“Worse comes to worst, he can camp by the Presidential Blue House, right?” one user wrote on a real-estate forum.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Seoul apartment prices have risen more than 50 percent since South Korean President Moon Jae-in inherited loosened mortgage rules from the previous administration three years ago.
To slow buy-to-rent demand, the Housing Lease Protection Act, led by Hong, capped increases of jeonse deposits at 5 percent and allowed tenants to extend standard two-year contracts for another two, unless landlords themselves move into the property.
Jeonse is a lump-sum returnable deposit paid instead of monthly rent.
The act led to an unprecedented shortage of jeonse housing nationwide as landlords sought to empty properties ahead of July so they could increase deposits for new tenants, expecting not to be able to raise them again for four years.
In Hong’s case, his lease ends in January, at which time his landlord is set to move into the property, said a realtor citing an industry database, echoing local media reports.
“My fellow landlords, let’s not rent out to Hong, let him suffer!” wrote a landlord on the popular real-estate forum. “Let’s make him feel what the government has done!”
For a comparable apartment with three bedrooms in Hong’s complex in Seoul’s up-market Mapo area, he faces deposits that have surged 32 percent in three months to 830 million won (US$731,310), Naver Real Estate data showed.
Hong, who has served the government for more than 30 years, had a net worth of 1.06 billion won at the end of December last year, government data showed.
Hong is one of a group of senior officials popularly blamed for failing to curb runaway home prices in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, even after more than 20 rounds of mortgage curbs and other steps during Moon’s tenure.
In that time, median Seoul apartment prices have risen more than 50 percent, KB Bank data showed.
His forced move opened a geyser of schadenfreude, with South Koreans struggling to find affordable housing mocking Hong for being a victim of his own making.
“Dear Hong, come and live in my place. I’ll give you a good deal,” one netizen said.
“Hong’s so smart. Way to go bro. Keep playing the victim and demand a bigger job from Moon,” another wrote.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
RSS