Ultra-High Monthly Rents Surge in Seoul as Wealthy Rent Instead of Buy Seoul’s average apartment rent has entered the 1.5 million won-a-month range for the first time, and the market for ultra-high monthly rents is expanding quickly this year, led by wealthy tenants. As the tax burden tied to owning expensive homes grows, more affluent households are opting to pay steep rents rather than buy, signaling a shift toward “occupying” prime housing without ownership. According to transaction data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Seoul recorded 64 lease contracts with monthly rent of 10 million won or more from the start of this year through April 21, up 16.4% from 55 a year earlier. The move upmarket is becoming clearer. New monthly-rent deals above 10 million won totaled 56, more than 33% higher than the same period last year (42). Contracts above 15 million won reached 23, up 35% from a year earlier. Analysts say rents in the 10 million won range, once largely limited to large units in Seoul’s Gangnam area or ultra-luxury villas, are taking a bigger share as rent levels rise across the city. This year, an Acro Seoul Forest unit (198 square meters) was leased with a 500 million won deposit and 29 million won in monthly rent. Deals in the 20 million won range also continued, including Poses Hannam River (27 million won) and Aper Hannam River (25 million won). Higher-end rents are also spreading beyond the very top of the market. In the broader category of contracts with monthly rent of 2 million won or more, the share has been rising not only in Seoul’s three Gangnam districts — Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa — but also in the “Ma-Yong-Seong” area of Mapo, Yongsan and Seongdong. Of 3,744 new apartment monthly-rent contracts in the three Gangnam districts this year, 1,644 — or 43.9% — were for 2 million won or more, up 4.4 percentage points from 39.5% a year earlier. In Seongdong, 367 of 806 contracts, or 45.5%, were 2 million won or more, higher than the Gangnam-district share. In Yongsan, 239 of 523 contracts, or 45.7%, were in that bracket, up 3.2 percentage points from a year earlier. Mapo’s share was lower at 29.3% — 270 of 921 contracts — but still up from 25.3% last year. Experts attribute the expansion of high-end monthly rents to heavier taxation on multi-homeowners and tighter requirements tied to owner occupancy. With acquisition taxes and comprehensive real estate holding taxes adding to the cost of ownership, they say some wealthy households see it as advantageous to keep liquidity and pay high rent to live in top neighborhoods rather than tie up assets in property. They also point to a clearer “tax pass-through” trend: As holding-tax burdens rise due to higher official assessed values and interest-rate increases, some landlords are converting lump-sum deposit leases into monthly-rent contracts or raising rents to shift costs to tenants. Experts say the rental market is being pushed upward overall, with wealthy tenants choosing ultra-high rents for risk management, while less affluent renters seeking apartments instead of villas run into limited supply and financing constraints and are driven toward higher monthly payments. Park Won-gap, chief real estate expert at KB Kookmin Bank, said perceptions are changing, particularly among active seniors. “For wealthy people, owning a home has become a risk,” he said. “Paying a high monthly rent to maintain housing quality is emerging as a reasonable alternative, and that is expanding the high-end monthly-rent market.” 2026-04-21 16:19:47

Gyeonggi Provincial Council Speaker Kim Jin-kyung Opens 389th Special Session GYEONGGI, South Korea — Gyeonggi Provincial Council Speaker Kim Jin-kyung said April 21 that the council should take an active role in responding to the crisis facing residents’ livelihoods, calling it a time to make decisions based on people’s day-to-day needs and to act responsibly. In opening remarks at the council’s 389th special session plenary meeting, Kim, a Democratic Party lawmaker representing Siheung 3, said that while spring has arrived, the livelihood economy residents feel “remains cold and heavy.” He said compounded difficulties triggered by the war in the Middle East are affecting residents’ lives. “Rising energy prices are adding to household costs, and higher interest rates and inflation are narrowing choices for ordinary people,” Kim said. “What we need now is a clear standard — livelihoods — and action.” He urged smooth deliberations during the session on a supplementary budget proposal. Kim said the supplementary budget is “not simply a fiscal reinforcement,” but “a defensive line” to protect livelihoods. He called for council members to work together so it leads to practical support, including protection for vulnerable groups, aid for small business owners and recovery of local economies. Saying the council is “in the middle of change,” Kim stressed that cooperation should come before competition and that bipartisan collaboration is a duty, not a choice. He also urged the executive branch to refine policies during the crisis, saying the council and the administration cannot move separately. To residents, Kim said he understands the hardship is not light and pledged to make residents’ lives the council’s standard, starting with the most vulnerable and ensuring needed support reaches the right places. Kim said he would do his utmost to ensure the special session results in a council that responds to the crisis and fulfills its responsibilities.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-21 16:18:56

NH Investment & Securities’ Standard OCIO Wrap Grows as Volatility Drives Demand Market volatility driven by external uncertainty, along with a shift of funds into equities, is fueling rapid growth in standardized OCIO (outsourced chief investment officer) products designed for individual investors and small and midsize companies. The products are also seen as helping improve the profit structure of OCIO businesses, long criticized for low profitability. As of April 21, the financial investment industry said NH Investment & Securities’ standardized OCIO product, the “NH Columbus EMP Wrap,” had 370 billion won in assets under management at the end of the first quarter. That was up 100 billion won from 270 billion won at the end of last year. With the product at about 100 billion won at the end of 2024, the pace of inflows has accelerated, the industry said. The increase was attributed to rising demand from small and midsize corporate clients seeking to track stock-market returns during an upswing, and from individual investors looking for volatility management. Returns have also stood out. The product has gained 5.3% since the start of the year. Since its 2019 launch, it has posted an average annual return of about 10% over seven years. The average return over the past three years was 15%, and the past one-year return was 21.15%, helped by base effects after volatility widened last year amid tariff-related issues. OCIO services typically provide customized asset-allocation management for large institutions such as pension funds. The NH Columbus EMP Wrap standardizes that approach into a model portfolio so it can be used by small and midsize companies and individual investors. Demand has grown as an alternative for companies that fall short of the minimum subscription for customized OCIO, about 50 billion won. Individuals can subscribe with at least 30 million won. The standardized format is seen as attractive because it lowers entry barriers and allows flexible inflows and outflows. With no fixed contract term, liquidity management is easier. Investors can also use the same model portfolios applied to large institutional clients without building a separate asset-allocation strategy. Unlike mutual fund-style OCIO products offered by asset managers, the wrap structure is managed by account, allowing responses tailored to each client’s tax and accounting schedules. Industry participants described it as combining the pooled-management advantages of funds with the customized oversight of discretionary accounts. Standardized products still account for only about 10% of NH Investment & Securities’ total OCIO assets under management excluding large funds, which stand at 3.7 trillion won. But they have contributed more on profitability, the industry said. With standardized OCIO assets rising about 100 billion won so far this year, the firm’s overall OCIO fee rate increased to about 17 basis points from 11 basis points at the end of last year, partially offsetting the low-fee structure of traditional OCIO operations. NH Investment & Securities expanded its standardized OCIO lineup in February by launching “NH Columbus Income.” The product allocates assets mainly to bonds and alternative investments, excluding the equity portion, targeting corporate investors wary of volatility. An industry official said more companies that previously relied on deposits or short-term financial products are moving into risk assets to boost returns, and demand to keep pace is flowing into customized OCIO offerings. 2026-04-21 16:14:55

Anseong Mayor Kim Bo-ra Says Speed Matters as City Drafts 18 Billion Won Emergency Budget Gyeonggi Province’s Anseong city has drafted an emergency 18 billion won supplementary budget to ease residents’ financial strain from high fuel prices, inflation and the prolonged Middle East war. The city submitted the proposal to the Anseong City Council on April 20 in line with the central government’s measures to stabilize livelihoods. The one-time budget focuses on urgent issues tied to the war’s spillover effects and is expected to be put to a final vote at the council’s 239th extraordinary session on April 28 after prior consultations and schedule coordination. The centerpiece is 14.9 billion won in high fuel price relief payments. The city plans to begin paying up to 550,000 won per household starting April 27 to basic livelihood recipients, near-poor households and households in the bottom 70% by income. The plan also includes 600 million won for K-Pass rebate support to respond to the fuel-price shock, encourage public transit use and improve mobility. Another 900 million won was set aside to hire temporary workers for a special farmland survey aimed at creating public-sector jobs. To help residents and small businesses hit by high prices, the budget includes 500 million won for a special credit guarantee program for small merchants and 1 billion won to support issuance of local currency to boost consumption. Mayor Kim Bo-ra said on social media on April 20 that she had approved the 18 billion won emergency budget, adding that the city had prepared a plan tailored to local needs and aimed at rapid execution after the government announced its own supplementary budget. “Speed matters with a supplementary budget,” Kim said. “The city is operating a task force team with the goal of starting the first round of applications and payments for relief funds from April 27. We will execute it quickly so it provides real help to residents who are struggling.” The city said it will begin spending as soon as the council approves the budget and will focus its administrative resources on ensuring there are no disruptions in applications and payments. An Anseong city official said the emergency budget was designed to prioritize stable daily life for residents and support the local economy, adding that the city will push detailed policies and swift execution to help overcome the current crisis.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-21 16:14:06

Adani Enterprises sets up three airport-city units for hotels and real estate Adani Enterprises, a core company of India’s Adani Group, said on April 18 that its wholly owned unit Adani Airport City has set up three subsidiaries to handle hotel and real estate development. Effective April 6, it established Adani Navi Mumbai Airport City, Adani Guwahati Airport City and Adani Ahmedabad Airport City. Each has paid-in capital of 1 million rupees (about 1.7 million yen). The companies plan to pursue real estate business using owned or leased properties, real estate construction, and hotel operations that include restaurants, banquet halls and business hubs. The Adani Group operates airports through its Adani Airport Holdings (AAHL). AAHL won operating rights for six airports in India and took over those concessions in fiscal 2020/21 (April 2020 to March 2021) and fiscal 2021/22. AAHL also acquired more than a 70% stake in Mumbai International Airport Ltd. (MIAL), which operates Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), also known as Mumbai airport, from infrastructure conglomerate GVK Group and others. It also holds management control of Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd. (NMIAL), a MIAL unit that operates Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA). 2026-04-21 16:13:25

South Jeolla Province to Revamp Seedling Production for Climate-Resilient Forests South Jeolla Province said it held a meeting April 21 at its Forest Research Institute in Naju to discuss a structural overhaul of how it develops forest resources, including tree species selection and seedling production, in response to climate change. The meeting was aimed at preparing for shifting forest growing conditions, rising forest disasters and changes in forest-creation patterns linked to climate change. Eighteen people attended, including officials from the province and its cities and counties, forest research institutions and seedling producers. Participants focused on expanding climate-adapted species, meeting demand for large-tree plantings, and improving the seedling production and supply system. The province said it plans to move away from conifer-centered forest creation by expanding climate-adapted species such as warm-temperate broadleaf trees and nectar-producing trees, and by introducing tailored species suited to local climate conditions. It said the goal is to build forests more resilient to disasters such as wildfires while strengthening ecological stability and public benefits. The Forest Research Institute presented recommendations for key warm-temperate broadleaf and nectar-producing species based on matching species to suitable sites. The province said it plans to secure seed sources for species including inamu, aweenamu and odongnamu within this year and then build out a full-scale seedling production system. The province said nectar-producing trees are a key resource for protecting both the beekeeping industry and forest ecosystems because they provide food not only for honeybees but also for a range of forest insects. It said it will actively secure major nectar-producing species. It also said demand is rising for large-tree plantings to secure carbon absorption earlier, improve scenery and support species conversion as part of efforts to control pine wilt disease. To address supply-demand imbalances, the province said it will improve seedling-age standards and diversify specifications. For seedling production, which the province called critical to long-term forest planning, it said it will build a systematic supply system based on mid- to long-term supply-and-demand forecasts. It also plans to gradually establish an integrated forest resource management system linking seedling production, forest creation and follow-up management to improve policy effectiveness. Kang Sin-hui, head of the province’s Forest Resources Division, said rapid changes in forest conditions driven by climate change require a fundamental shift in forest-creation methods and nursery policy. “Based on field input and scientific data, we will actively push sustainable forest resource development and strengthen the competitiveness of the forestry sector,” Kang said. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-21 16:12:47

Cho Kuk Innovation Party’s Park Hong-ryul launches Mokpo mayoral bid, vows local political reform Park Hong-ryul, a preliminary candidate for Mokpo mayor from the Cho Kuk Innovation Party, held a news conference on 21 and formally confirmed his entry into the June 3 local elections, pledging to serve as a “steppingstone for reform in local politics.” In a statement, Park said citizens and party members had backed him to face the Democratic Party candidate in the general election. He thanked voters for choosing him, saying he would stand up to what he called the Democratic Party’s heavy-handed politics in Mokpo and help open an era of local government led by citizens. Park also urged primary rival Park Yong-an to join forces, calling for unity to break what he described as the Democratic Party’s stronghold. He said local politics in Yeongnam and Honam had been dominated by the Democratic Party and the People Power Party, arguing the system should move toward a genuine multiparty structure that reflects public opinion. Park said he would win the election, make Mokpo a base for political innovation and restore the city’s standing as a leading center of Honam politics. Park said his party and the Democratic Party share some goals, including prosecutorial reform, but criticized the Democratic Party for, in his words, repaying Honam residents’ support with “lineups” tied to nominations. “It is time for alert citizens to discipline monopolistic political power,” he said. Park pointed to his experience in city administration as an advantage. He said that during his time in office in the 6th and 8th elected administrations, Mokpo boosted tourism competitiveness by installing a marine cable car. He also said the city restarted the long-delayed Imseong District development project through an agreement with the Korea Land and Housing Corp., and improved the monopoly structure of city bus routes, resolving wage arrears and service suspensions. As a key pledge for the 9th elected administration, Park proposed building a Mokpo-style renewable energy convergence national industrial complex on 550,000 pyeong around Gohado, attracting 100 companies and creating 10,000 jobs. Park said he would make Mokpo “a happy city from cradle to old age” and a city with abundant jobs for young people. He asked for support, saying he would overcome what he called the Democratic Party’s high barrier and open a new era for Mokpo. The news conference was seen as signaling potential shifts in the local political landscape ahead of the June 3 elections and was expected to affect the Mokpo mayoral race.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-21 16:10:19

Hudson AI Unveils Automated AI Dubbing Tool at NAB Show, Targets One-Hour QC Media-focused voice AI company Hudson AI showcased its voice AI solution for media production and dubbing, Hudson Studio, at NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas. NAB Show is a global exhibition where the latest technologies across broadcasting, streaming and video production are introduced, drawing tens of thousands of industry participants from more than 100 countries each year. With the expansion of OTT services, AI-driven production tools have become a major theme, and participation has been rising in areas such as speech synthesis, automated dubbing and video generation. Hudson AI highlighted what it calls “Agentic Localization,” a system in which AI agents handle the full localization workflow — from planning and execution to quality control. The company said the approach goes beyond translation or generating dubbed audio by repeatedly evaluating and revising outputs to improve quality. A central focus is automating QC, a step the industry often cites as the biggest drain on time and cost. For a one-hour drama or variety program, the review stage alone can take several days after translation and dubbing. Hudson AI said it designed the process so agents complete much of the work in advance, aiming to limit human involvement to final checks and to bring QC down to about one hour. The company said it can maintain consistency by using project-specific terminology, style guides and tone as a form of memory. It also applies emotion-aware evaluation to analyze not only voice matching but also acting tone, emotional delivery and nonverbal elements, automatically reworking segments that fall below standards. Hudson Studio offers modular tools including voice separation, speaker separation, speech-to-text, text-to-speech and voice conversion. The company said users can separate background sound from dialogue to generate subtitles, or create dubbed voices that reflect a specific speaker’s vocal color and emotion. It currently supports more than 80 languages. As global OTT platforms expand multilingual dubbed content, the automated dubbing and localization market is growing quickly. Industry estimates cited in the sector suggest localization can account for 20% to 30% of total production costs in some cases, with demand for automation rising especially among platforms with large libraries. Hudson AI said it plans to use its NAB appearance to broaden collaboration talks with media and platform companies in North and South America. It also plans to attend SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 in Japan later this month as it targets the Asian market. “Even when AI dubbing is adopted, bottlenecks often occur at the quality review stage in real operations,” CEO Shin Hyun-jin said. “Agentic Localization focuses on automating the entire process — from planning to execution and review — to improve quality while addressing cost and scheduling at the same time.”* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-21 16:07:54

Morgan Stanley Sees Agentic AI Boosting CPU, Memory Demand; Samsung, SK Hynix Among Beneficiaries Agentic AI — autonomous systems that plan and carry out multistep tasks — could broaden AI chip investment beyond graphics processing units to include central processing units and memory, Morgan Stanley said. According to Reuters, Morgan Stanley said in a report released the previous day that as AI moves beyond content generation toward autonomous execution, CPUs and memory, along with GPUs, are becoming key components that determine overall performance. The bank said the shift could change how data center servers are configured and lift demand for CPUs, while adding that GPU demand remains strong. Morgan Stanley estimated that agentic AI could add $32.5 billion to $60 billion to a data center CPU market expected to exceed $100 billion by 2030. As AI workloads are broken into multiple steps, the bank said, CPUs are likely to serve as a control layer and memory demand could also rise quickly. Companies operating in supply-constrained areas could gain greater pricing power, it said. Morgan Stanley listed Nvidia, AMD, Intel and Arm as potential beneficiaries in CPUs and accelerators; Micron, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in memory; and TSMC and ASML in manufacturing and equipment. Reuters earlier reported, citing recent earnings outlooks from ASML and TSMC, that U.S. Big Tech companies are still expanding investment in AI infrastructure. 2026-04-21 16:07:19

Cabinet OKs Capital Gains Tax Relief for Multi-Home Sellers Who Apply by May 9 A measure to exempt multi-homeowners from higher capital gains tax rates when selling homes in regulated areas was finalized on the 21st, provided they complete an application for land transaction approval by May 9. The government said it approved revisions to the enforcement decrees of the Income Tax Act and the Real Estate Transaction Reporting Act at the 17th State Council meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kim Min-seok that morning. As previously announced, the temporary suspension of higher capital gains tax rates for multi-homeowners selling homes they hold in regulated areas will end May 9. However, acknowledging that obtaining land transaction approval can take time, the government said it will not apply the higher tax rates to cases in which the approval application is filed by that date, easing selling conditions to some extent. The Cabinet also approved a revision to the enforcement decree of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, abolishing the per-transaction cap on small overseas remittances ($5,000) and switching late-payment penalties for the foreign exchange stability levy from a monthly to a daily basis. The government said the changes are intended to make remittances more convenient while refining penalties. A revision to the Public Official Election Act also cleared the Cabinet, introducing a mid-sized electoral district system for metropolitan council elections for the first time in the June 3 local elections and increasing the share of proportional representation seats. The total number of local council members will rise by 80 compared with the 2022 quota. A revision to the Political Parties Act also passed, allowing a party members’ council or local committee to operate one office to support smoother management of lower-level city and provincial party organizations. The Cabinet further approved a bill to enact a basic law on patients, broadly covering patients’ rights and duties, and a revision to the Child Welfare Act to strengthen protections for the right to learn for children who have suffered abuse. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-21 16:06:31