Korea's ruling party pulls the residency test out of its own property tax bill

Five hundred million won is the distance the government's draft put between two people who each own one home: a 1.4 billion won deduction if you live in yours, 900 million if you do not ^[2][13]. That spread was the entire mechanism. Set the two figures level, as the party-government meeting discussed doing, and the comprehensive real estate tax stops distinguishing resident owners from absentee ones at all ^[6][5]. No version of that equalization drags the resident number down, because the party's stated purpose is easing the burden on the owners who do not live in their homes ^[1].

Kim Min-seok put the 200% cap on tax increases in the same sentence as the 900 million figure when he said both needed deeper deliberation, which tells you the scope of what is open ^[4]. His reason for going easy was that official property values are climbing and raising the non-resident bill without any help from the tax code ^[3]. That argument works against the deduction cut and against the cap equally well.

What survives of shifting the system from rewarding ownership to rewarding residence sits on the capital gains side, and even there the direction is relief: exemptions from the long-term holding special deduction get broader for single-home owners who cannot live in the property, with a work transfer as the named case ^[7][8]. The principle keeps its name while both of its enforcement edges are filed down.

The supply half of the package is the part built to arrive. Handing approval of redevelopment projects of 500 units or fewer to district offices and other basic local governments needs only a revision of the presidential decree; amending the urban maintenance and improvement act is a fallback the two sides merely agreed to consider if needed ^[9][10]. Easing floor area ratio limits on private redevelopment and reconstruction got the weakest verb in the readout, which was to discuss it actively ^[11]. Tax changes need bills, and bills need the National Assembly ^[12].

Then the calendar. The revised plan goes to the Cabinet on the 1st of next month and the bills to the Assembly on the 3rd, which leaves under ten days between the meeting and the Cabinet paper, and two days between that paper and submission ^[12][16][17]. Parameters rewritten in that window get picked, not modelled. The 900 million won figure was announced by the government and has already been refused by the party that has to pass it.