A survey has found that registered rental housing in Seoul has been supplied at approximately half the market rent, amid President Lee Jae-myung's recent comments on stabilizing the real estate market through equitable taxation of registered private rental housing.
The Korea Housing Landlords Association announced on the 2nd that its comprehensive survey of registered rental housing rents reported to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport from 2018 to 2024 showed the average jeonse price for registered rental housing in Seoul was 257.41 million won in 2024. This represents 53.1% of the average Seoul housing jeonse price of 485.08 million won based on KB Kookmin Bank market data for the same year.
According to the association, the average jeonse price for Seoul's registered rental housing was 62.7% of general housing market prices in 2018, dropping approximately 10 percentage points over six years. This is attributed to institutional caps on rent increases for registered rental housing even as general jeonse and monthly rents continued to rise. The registered private rental business system grants tax benefits to rental operators who comply with obligations including an annual 5% rent increase cap and mandatory rental periods.
By housing type, the average jeonse price for registered rental apartments in Seoul was 411.32 million won in 2024, representing 65.1% of the market jeonse price for general apartments at 631.76 million won. This ratio fell more than 12 percentage points from 77.7% in 2018. While general Seoul apartment jeonse prices rose 36.6% from 462.77 million won in 2018 to 631.76 million won in 2024, registered rental apartment jeonse prices increased only 14.4% from 359.71 million won to 411.32 million won. With apartment registered rentals abolished since 2020, all remaining units will be automatically delisted over the three years starting this year.
The average jeonse price for single-family and multi-family homes supplied as registered rentals in 2024 was 143.14 million won, only 28.5% of the 503.14 million won average for general single-family and multi-family homes.
"Registered rental housing is contributing to housing stability for ordinary citizens with rents far below market rates," said Sung Chang-yup, chairman of the Korea Housing Landlords Association. "Registered rental housing operators have performed public functions comparable to public rental housing by complying with rent increase restrictions and mandatory rental periods. Unreasonable regulations on registered rental housing will directly lead to instability in the rental market."
President Lee previously expressed doubt via social media last month about permanently maintaining the exclusion of registered rental housing operators from heavy capital gains taxes on multi-property owners, stating, "Wouldn't it be fair for various taxes on registered rental housing to be the same as general rental housing after the rental period ends?" He also noted that "if registered rental multi-property units enter the market like general multi-property units after the mandatory rental period and certain capital gains tax exclusion periods expire, it would have the effect of supplying hundreds of thousands of units."