[비즈한국] "Even when I put my house on the market, no one comes to see it."
Recently, reports detailing the 'plight' of multi-homeowners have flooded real estate communities and the media. Even though there is no reason for political leanings to align with the distribution of multi-homeowners, quite a few netizens are criticizing the government's plan to end the tax grace period. This occurred immediately after President Lee Jae-myung stated that there would be "no further grace periods" just days before the scheduled end of the capital gains tax surcharge grace period on May 9. At this point, one might even wonder if we are suffering from the delusion of vaguely fearing a decline in housing prices.
The biggest reason why items in the market do not sell is quite simple: the price is higher than the value the buyer perceives. Whether it is a super-luxury item worth 0.1% of the market or street food like bungeoppang, things sell when the price is right. That is the most basic principle of capitalism.
What we should really fear is not the decline in house prices, but the madness of assets that have overwhelmed the value of labor. According to KB Real Estate, as of the third quarter of 2025, the Price-to-Income Ratio (PIR) in the Seoul area reached 10.6. This means that a salaryman would have to save every penny for 10 years just to barely afford one house in Seoul. Over the past several years, while income growth has remained in the single digits, apartment prices in major complexes have more than doubled.
For those preparing to buy their first home, this figure is pure despair. Whose tears should we wipe away first—the tears of the multi-homeowners or the tears of those without homes?
For ordinary people who have lived diligently by saving nearly half of their monthly salaries to buy a home, the state neglecting rising house prices in the name of 'grace periods' is a clear dereliction of duty. We must now break this abnormal structure where the value of labor is mocked by the value of assets. President Lee Jae-myung's firm stance that there will be no more grace periods should be read not merely as an attempt to suppress the real estate market, but as a commitment to correcting collapsed economic principles.
At some point, we started viewing falling house prices as a national disaster. However, prices reflecting bubbles finding their true level is a healthy self-correcting function of the economy. There is no reason for the state to indefinitely provide a ventilator in the form of tax benefits to compensate for the losses of those who have used real estate as a 'cheat code' for asset growth.
Let us no longer fear falling house prices. Only when house prices stabilize downward can young generations and ordinary people without assets find housing at reasonable costs, leading to a virtuous cycle where remaining income is used for consumption and investment in the real economy. Allowing 'dead money' tied up in real estate to flow into industrial fields is the path toward a much healthier society, even from a business perspective.
Of course, holding onto a price that doesn't sell is a matter of individual freedom. However, one should not expect to be compensated for the pain of that 'holding out' through the special privilege of policy grace periods. Ending the grace period is not a punishment for multi-homeowners. It is a 'restoration of common sense' by returning an abnormally distorted tax system to its principles. A clear signal that the capital gains tax surcharge will be reinstated after May 10 must be firmly established in the market. Only then will those who have been keeping their properties off the market in the hope of a lucky break begin to set 'realistic prices.' I emphasize again: if you lower the price, the house will sell.
Policy consistency is the most powerful infrastructure that helps market participants make rational life plans. Through the end of this grace period, the government must prove that the South Korean real estate market is no longer a gambling den that fluctuates according to political calculations. There are no more cowardly exits. When principles are firmly established, only then can the market return to a space for living, not for speculation.