Annual holding costs, including taxes and maintenance fees, are becoming a key consideration in Seoul’s high-end housing market, alongside purchase prices. A comparison under identical single-home owner-resident conditions estimated annual holding tax at about 11 million won ($8,000) for an apartment worth approximately 3.7 billion won ($2.7 million), compared with about 2 million won ($1,400) for a residential officetel valued at roughly 3.4 billion won ($2.5 million). Although the transaction-price gap was about 300 million won ($220,000), the tax difference exceeded fivefold. The disparity reflects different assessment bases: apartments use the multi-family housing price published by South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, while officetels use building standard market value and attached land value announced by local governments. The South Korean government’s 2026 Tax Reform Proposal, announced on the 3rd, would raise the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax threshold for single-home owners from a published price of 1.2 billion won ($870,000) to 1.4 billion won ($1.0 million), while reducing the basic deduction for non-resident single-home owners and shifting the rate structure toward housing value rather than the number of homes. The proposal remains subject to legislative notice, Cabinet deliberation and National Assembly review, and could change. If finalized as proposed, the reforms would begin phasing in in 2027. Seoul’s large officetel market is also gaining owner-occupier appeal: units exceeding 85 square meters rose 0.59% in the second quarter from the previous quarter, and their average sales price surpassed 1.4 billion won ($1.0 million) in June for the first time since statistics began. Individual tax outcomes still depend on ownership structure, residency, other properties and applicable credits.