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Korea Postal Service Agency Faces Repeated Failures in Selling Haerim Resort in Sokcho

[비즈한국] The Korea Postal Service Agency, an affiliate of the Korea Post, is facing difficulties in selling its Haerim Resort. The agency has attempted to sell the resort several times since last year, but each attempt has ended in failure. Haerim Resort was previously used for employee welfare and is currently operated as a public lodging facility. However, it is considered to have low competitiveness as a lodging facility due to its aging infrastructure.

The Korea Postal Service Agency established a lodging facility called "Haerimjang" in Sokcho, Gangwon-do, in 1995. While it was initiated as part of a profit-making business, it also served the purpose of employee welfare. In 1998, the agency announced, "We are operating the 20 rooms of Haerimjang, which were used as a profit-making business, as a welfare and vacation facility. This measure is intended to provide more benefits to the employees of the Ministry of Information and Communication (now the Ministry of Science and ICT) and their families, considering the difficulties in using existing condominiums due to booking surges during weekends and peak seasons."

Haerimjang remains under the ownership of the Korea Postal Service Agency and is now operated under the name "Haerim Resort." It has a total of about 30 guest rooms. Unlike in the past, Haerim Resort is now considered to have low competitiveness as a lodging facility because it is located far from downtown Sokcho and the supply of high-quality lodging facilities has increased since the 2000s.

Consequently, the Korea Postal Service Agency began efforts to sell Haerim Resort last year. According to Onbid, the sale was conducted via an auction with an appraised price of 985,049,380 won. The auction process determines the successful bidder by selecting the highest bidder above the appraised price among two or more valid participants. However, no bidders emerged despite several attempts until October of last year.

The Korea Postal Service Agency resumed the sale of Haerim Resort in September of this year. The appraised price was lowered by approximately 150 million won from last year to 834,782,500 won. This attempt also failed due to a lack of interested buyers, and a re-announcement in October also resulted in no bids. The Korea Postal Service Agency issued a third sale notice on October 29, but it is still failing to attract significant interest.

Seorak-dong, Sokcho-si, Gangwon-do, where Haerim Resort is located, is also evaluated as having low real estate value. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the officially assessed land price per square meter for the site where Haerim Resort is located was: 341,700 won in 2020; 293,500 won in 2021; 284,500 won in 2022; 261,300 won in 2023; 262,000 won in 2024; and 266,900 won in 2025. The property value has actually declined compared to the early 2020s. Unless the Korea Postal Service Agency significantly lowers the selling price of Haerim Resort, the sale is expected to remain difficult in the future.

Bizhankook contacted the Korea Postal Service Agency to hear their position on the matter, but did not receive a response.