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Figures of minors who own homes

There are more than 24,000 minors (less than 19 years of age) in South Korea who own a house, recently released figures show. 108 of these minors own five or more houses, 30 percent (31) of whom live in the three affluent Seoul districts (Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa) collectively referred to as Gangnam.

The figures about house ownership by minors, which are sorted nationally, by city and province, and for the three Gangnam districts, were made public by Shim Gi-jun, a lawmaker with the Democratic Party and a member of the National Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee, on Oct. 3. According to the figures, a total of 23,991 minors around the country owned a house as of the end of 2016. Among them, 1,181 owned at least two houses, and 108 owned five or more.

When sorted by region, the largest number of house-owning minors were found to reside in Gyeonggi Province (5,038), Seoul (3,727) and North Gyeongsang Province (1,799), while 30 percent (1,122) of the house-owning minors in Seoul were concentrated in the three Gangnam districts of Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa. Of this group, 105 owned at least two houses, and 31 owned five or more.

This data was prepared by Statistics Korea at Shim’s request using building ownership records, the population and housing census, and the population and housing database. Since this data is based on the region in which the minors in question reside, it does not include information about the region in which the houses they own are located. This data also includes “joint ownership,” which is to say that it regards minors as owning a house even when their parents are also listed on the title deed.

“Given the high housing prices in the three Gangnam districts, it would be practically impossible for a minor to own a house there without inheriting it or receiving it as a gift. We need to look into the possibility of tax evasion and gift or inheritance irregularity for minors without income,” Shim said.

“Considering that more than 8.62 million households, or 44.5 percent of the total, don’t own a house, we need to tackle the fact that class is determined by real estate in this society, which makes things so hard for the have-nots.”

By Kim Kyu-nam, staff reporter

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