Its reform aimed to protect tenants in the Land of the Morning Calm.
It produced a perverse effect that backfired on him.
Hong Nam-ki, South Korea's finance minister, introduced a measure to limit increases in security deposits tenants must pay their landlord at the start of a lease.
In South Korea, this deposit reduces to the rank of miserable tip the deposit that a French tenant must deposit before taking the keys to his home.
The
jeonse,
it is the term in the original version, can be half or more of the purchase value of the property.
The counterpart of this system is a moderate rent level.
Before the entry into force, next July, of the cap decided by Hong Nam-ki, some landlords have already rushed to increase the “
jeonse
deposit
” when the lease expires.
It is the mishap that happens to the minister himself, says Reuters.
The lease on the apartment he rents near Parliament in Seoul ends in January.
His owner has already told him that he does not want to re-let him.
And in Mapo, its upscale neighborhood, the
jeonse
has jumped by a third!
A cabal has spread on social networks, fomented by disgruntled landlords against this obstacle to increasing this substantial rental income, generally placed during the lease.
They openly want to make
Hong
"
suffer
" by refusing to rent him a new apartment or by making him pay dearly, literally.
