President Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday targeted approximately 300,000 registered rental housing units in Seoul, including about 50,000 apartments, noting they "receive preferential treatment including acquisition tax, property tax, and comprehensive real estate tax reductions, as well as permanent exemption from heavy capital gains tax on multiple homeowners."
While clarifying this was part of gathering public opinion, the president signaled for the second consecutive day the possibility of reforming the private registered rental housing system.
"There are opinions questioning whether permanent preferential treatment should be given simply because properties were once registered as rental housing, even though they are the same multiple properties," President Lee wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "It would be fair for various tax treatments to be the same as regular rental housing after the rental period ends."
However, the president added a caveat: "Since immediate abolition of the capital gains tax exemption would impose too heavy a burden, there could be options such as eliminating it after a certain period (for example, one year) or phasing it out gradually (abolishing half the preferential treatment after one to two years, then eliminating all preferential treatment after two years)."
He added, "If registered rental properties with multiple homes come to market, it would have the effect of supplying hundreds of thousands of units."