A 50-something in Changwon in southeastern Korea is the country's biggest landlord with a whopping 700 properties in their portfolio.
Minjoo Party lawmaker Choi In-ho obtained home ownership records from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Wednesday which show that there are 182,204 people registered as private rental business owners, and they own 644,036 homes between them. That boils down to 3.5 homes per person.
Rental businesses are required to register their properties, and the government offers some tax discounts to those who do, because many tend not to.
The second-largest home owner is a person in Gwangju in southwestern Korea who owns 605 homes.
The youngest registered landlord is a two-year-old in Seongnam south of Seoul, while two three-year-old children are registered as landlords in Gangnam. The underage landlord who ostensibly owns the biggest number of homes is an 11-year-old in northern Seoul who owns 16, followed by a 13-year-old in eastern Seoul with 14.
The tony Gangnam area tops the country for underage landlords, suggesting that this is a popular tax dodge among the rich. Seocho district has the most underage landlords at 300, followed by Songpa, also in Gangnam, at 131.
A total of 501 people under 20 are registered as commercial landlords across the country, accounting for 0.3 percent. By gender, 97,711 of rental business owners are women and 84,493 men, with women owning 330,474 homes and men 313,562.
