Nearly half of the South Korean lawmakers, central and local government officials and high-ranking civil servants own at least two real estate properties, according to an analysis by a local market analysis firm.
Leader’s Index analyzed the assets of 2,581 individuals who are members of the National Assembly or are civil servant Grade 4 or higher, which showed that 48.8 percent owned two or more homes, either in their own name or that of a household member. Some 17.8 percent of the subjects had at least three homes.
Cho Seong-myeong, the chief of the Gangnam-gu Office, topped the list by owning 42 properties, including an apartment in the Gangnam-gu district registered under his own name, and two multi-purpose buildings under his wife’s name. He also had 39 “officetels,” housing units in resident-commercial buildings, in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, and Sokcho city in Gangwon Province.
Rep. Park Min-kyu of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea owned more homes than any other members of the National Assembly. He had a total of 13 properties, which include a Seocho-gu apartment jointly owned by him and his wife, a multi-purpose building in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, under his name, and 11 officetels in Gwanak-gu, Seoul.
Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu have among the highest housing valuations in the country.
“Multi-home owners basically had one or two apartments, and had a combination of residential units and buildings among their assets. The homes they owned were mostly concentrated in Seoul or Gangnam region,” the report said.
Of the 4,525 properties owned by prominent officials and lawmakers, 1,344 were in Seoul. The combined value of their Seoul real estate was 1.33 trillion won (906.5 million), which was 57.6 percent of the total.
Of the Seoul properties, 41.5 percent were in the three affluent “Gagnam districts”: Gangnam-gu, Seocho-gu and Songpa-gu.
On average, high-ranking government officials and heads of regional governments owned 1.9 homes, while members of the regional parliament and those working at state-run agencies and research facilities owned 1.7 homes on average.
Lawmakers on average owned 1.4 homes.
The report showed that 58.7 percent of the combined 5.71 trillion won assets of the subjects were values of their real estate property.
