Seoul’s Gangnam Home Prices Show Signs of Rebound as Lease Crunch Grows, Tax Overhaul Looms Seoul home prices in the Gangnam area, which had been sliding, are showing signs of a rebound as bargain listings dry up and rising jeonse (lump-sum lease) prices push buyers back into the market. The shift has been led by Songpa-gu, where a string of record-high deals in smaller units and outlying neighborhoods has helped halt a decline that had lasted nearly two months. Songpa leads a broader Gangnam-area rebound as buyer sentiment turns positive According to the Korea Real Estate Board, Seoul’s average apartment sale price rose 0.15% from a week earlier in the third week of April (as of the 20th). Songpa-gu, which had fallen for eight straight weeks along with Gangnam and Seocho, switched to gains for the first time in nine weeks, ending a downturn that began in February as listings from multi-home owners hit the market. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s transaction disclosure system shows a 27-square-meter unit at Ricenz in Jamsil-dong sold on April 4 for 1.83 billion won, topping 100 million won per 3.3 square meters. A 49-square-meter unit at Helio City in Garak-dong also set a new record at 2.17 billion won. As major complexes such as Jamsil’s Els saw 84-square-meter units recover to around 3.4 billion won, demand shifted toward smaller, more affordable units and outer areas. Buyer sentiment has also rebounded. The sales supply-demand index for Seoul’s southeastern region, which includes the three Gangnam districts, came in at 100.1 this week. It was the first time since mid-February — nine weeks — that the index rose above the 100 baseline, indicating more buyers than sellers. Rising jeonse prices add pressure, raising fears of a lease-driven price lift Rising jeonse prices across Seoul are also supporting sale prices. The Korea Real Estate Board said Songpa-gu’s weekly apartment jeonse price change was 0.39%, tied with Seongbuk-gu for the highest in the city. With jeonse listings drying up at large complexes, more tenants are shifting toward purchases. Seoul’s apartment jeonse prices have widened their gains for four straight months this year. The city’s cumulative jeonse increase stands at 2.17%, more than five times the 0.4% rise over the same period a year earlier. Four districts have already posted cumulative increases above 3%: Gwangjin (3.23%), Seongbuk (3.56%), Nowon (3.47%) and Seocho (3.22%). Experts warn that if the lease crunch persists, would-be first-time buyers could be pushed into “forced buying,” adding fuel to price increases. Nam Hyuk-woo of Woori Bank’s real estate research center said improved sentiment is being reflected in prices, but added that policy uncertainty remains. “With policy variables still in play, such as the possibility of reducing long-term holding deductions, a box-range market could continue as sellers and buyers watch each other,” he said. Broad tax package possible in July, from capital gains to holding taxes With signs of a market rebound, analysts expect the government to move faster. After President Lee Jae-myung called for an overhaul of real estate taxation to stabilize housing prices, a July tax law revision package is expected to include wide-ranging measures spanning capital gains tax and holding taxes, including the comprehensive real estate holding tax and property tax. A leading option is to scale back the long-term holding deduction for non-resident single-home owners. Under current rules, deductions can reach up to 80%. The plan would restructure the benefit around actual occupancy periods, sharply increasing taxes on a “one home for investment” that is not owner-occupied. The article said the approach reflects the president’s view that “cutting taxes just for holding encourages speculation.” Measures to increase the effective burden of holding taxes are also under review. The government is considering raising the fair market value ratio — which can be changed by enforcement decree — from the current 60% to 80% to 100% in stages. Still, criticism of a regulation-heavy approach is growing. An industry expert who requested anonymity said many multi-home owners have already adjusted to policy changes, and tougher taxes could instead deepen a “lock-up” in listings. The expert said it would be more important to present a concrete roadmap for urban housing supply than to rely on tax measures after the fact. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 15:10:34

Korea Exchange Joins Voluntary Carbon Market Alliance, Plans KRX Carbon Credit Market The Korea Exchange said April 27 it participated in the launch ceremony for the “Korea-style voluntary carbon market alliance,” hosted by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The exchange said the event brought together the ministry, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other related organizations, along with large companies, mid-sized firms, startups and financial institutions, to discuss how to build a voluntary carbon market. At the ceremony, the exchange announced plans to open the “KRX Carbon Credit Market.” It said it will set up a listing review system to ensure confidence in the quality of carbon credits listed and will work with the government and domestic carbon credit registries to build a stable and efficient platform. It also said it plans to pursue cross-border linked trading by cooperating with global carbon credit exchanges, registries and investors, and to attract overseas liquidity to the KRX Carbon Credit Market. In congratulatory remarks, Korea Exchange Chairman Jeong Eun-bo said the voluntary carbon market is becoming “a necessity, not an option,” as part of corporate social responsibility. He said the exchange will develop the KRX Carbon Credit Market into a global hub, citing its experience operating a carbon emissions trading market for 11 years.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 15:07:17

LG CNS Signs ChatGPT Edu Reseller Deal to Target South Korea’s Education AI Market LG CNS has signed a reseller partnership agreement for OpenAI’s education-focused service, ChatGPT Edu, expanding beyond the ChatGPT Enterprise reseller qualification it previously secured. The company said on the 27th it will begin supplying ChatGPT Edu to educational institutions in South Korea under the agreement with OpenAI. ChatGPT Edu is designed for schools and universities, supporting campus work such as generating lecture materials, organizing research data and reports, and providing personalized tutoring. LG CNS said the service offers the same security environment as ChatGPT Enterprise, allowing use without concerns about sensitive information leaks, and is priced to reduce the burden on educational institutions. Adoption is already accelerating overseas. Arizona State University, the California State University system and Harvard University are using ChatGPT Edu, and Estonia has introduced it across its secondary education system to expand AI use by students and teachers. In South Korea, however, the market is still in the early stages. LG CNS plans to roll out an introductory tour program and AI education seminars for major universities in the Seoul metropolitan area. It is also reviewing plans to work with universities and OpenAI on developing AI education curricula and running hackathons. The company’s dedicated ChatGPT organization, the “LG CNS OpenAI Launch Center,” will provide full-stack services from adoption consulting to technical support. The group includes AI engineers, architects and consultants, along with OpenAI-specialized engineers. LG CNS began supplying ChatGPT Enterprise in February and has since secured about 10 corporate customers across manufacturing, chemicals, finance and biotech, it said. “After rapidly expanding customer use cases through the ChatGPT Enterprise business, this Edu reseller agreement allows us to extend into the education AX field,” said Kim Tae-hoon, vice president and head of LG CNS’ AI Cloud Business Division. “We will support more students and educational institutions in boosting learning and research productivity through AI.” * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 15:06:32

Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon vows preemptive steps as airline, tourism woes deepen Rising oil prices and exchange rates linked to the Middle East war are adding to strains on South Korea’s airline and tourism industries, and Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said Monday the government will prepare extraordinary steps to prevent the crisis from spreading. “At this moment, what matters most is preemptive action and close cooperation to protect jobs,” Kim said. “We will proactively consider special measures to keep the situation from worsening.” The Ministry of Employment and Labor held its fifth emergency employment and labor situation review meeting at Gimpo Airport with the Korea Air Transport Association, the Korea Tourism Association, the Seoul Tourism Association, the Korea Association of Travel Agents and three airlines. The meeting reviewed business and employment conditions in the two sectors and discussed practical support measures. Airlines said demand has not fallen sharply so far, but they are concerned about higher costs and losses from rising fuel prices and exchange rates, as well as a possible drop in summer demand if fuel surcharges surge. Some carriers have begun accepting applications for unpaid leave and have put new hiring on hold, signs of mounting employment stress. Tourism companies also face worsening profitability, with major travel agencies considering unpaid or paid leave. The ministry said there is concern that sharply higher fuel surcharges could weaken travel demand and spread job insecurity across the industry. Industry representatives called for broader government support, including easing eligibility requirements for employment retention subsidies and simplifying procedures to speed payments. They also requested expanded support for job retention and training through designation as a special employment support industry, and relief such as deferring payments of employment and industrial accident insurance premiums. The ministry said it will closely monitor employment trends in the airline and tourism sectors. If conditions worsen, it will review expanding the list of industries eligible for relaxed requirements for employment retention subsidies. For industries covered by the eased rules, subsidies can be paid even if firms do not meet the sales-decline threshold, if deteriorating conditions make workforce adjustments unavoidable. The ministry also said that starting May 12 it will unify support categories that are currently split between business shutdowns and leave into a single type and simplify eligibility requirements. It said it will quickly review whether to designate the sectors as special employment support industries. To do so, the ministry is improving quantitative criteria, including better detection of employment shocks and reflecting conditions for day laborers. It said it will promptly assess applications from industry associations and provide support under relevant procedures. “The airline and tourism industries are a bridgehead for our economy that helps spread K-culture, and they are the workplace that supports the lives of countless workers,” Kim said. “The ministry will remain a strong backstop so this foundation does not shake.” He also said the ministry will expand communication with the industry to address hardships not captured in statistics and pursue tailored support that can be felt immediately on the ground, while not neglecting its basic duty to protect workers’ lives and safety.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 15:05:49

IEA: Taiwan Most Dependent on Gulf LNG as Iran Conflict Risks Supply Delays The International Energy Agency said in its second-quarter (April-June) natural gas market report released on the 24th that it could take up to about five years to restore production facilities in Gulf countries such as Qatar that were attacked by Iran. The impact could be especially large in countries and areas with heavy reliance on Gulf natural gas, including Taiwan, Bangladesh and India, it said. According to the report, about 90% of natural gas exported from Persian Gulf countries via the Strait of Hormuz is shipped to Asia. Gulf suppliers account for more than 25% of natural gas imports across Asian countries and regions, it said. China is the largest importer from the region, followed by India, Taiwan, South Korea and Pakistan in the top five. Taiwan has the highest dependence on Gulf natural gas at about 35%, followed by India and Singapore, the IEA said. China’s dependence remains below 10%. The report noted that while India relies heavily on Gulf gas, gas-fired power accounts for less than 10% of its domestic electricity generation. By contrast, Taiwan generates about half of its power from gas-fired plants, making it among the most exposed to disruptions in Gulf supplies, it said. The IEA said new production facilities in Gulf countries are coming online in stages, but many liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects originally scheduled to start operating from 2021 through the late 2030s could be delayed by the Iran conflict. If short-term supply losses coincide with slower growth in production capacity, the agency warned, cumulative LNG supply shortages of about 120 billion cubic meters could emerge from 2026 to 2030.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 15:01:44

Park Ji-hyeon Tops Idol Chart Weekly Star Poll for April’s Third Week Singer Park Ji-hyeon led Idol Chart’s Weekly Star poll for the third week of April. According to Idol Chart, Park received 1,035 votes in the tally compiled from April 20 to 26, the highest total in the poll. Park is continuing the “Showmanship Season 2” concert series, with stops in Gwangju, Incheon, Jeonju, Goyang, Busan and Seongnam. Hong Ji-yoon placed second with 734 votes, followed by Kim Ui-young with 209 and Jin with 2. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 15:01:00

Audit Finds NTS Mis-scored Compliance Ratings, Wrongly Picked 120 Firms for Tax Audits The National Tax Service mishandled parts of its corporate tax-compliance scoring by omitting certain evaluation items for thousands of companies, leading to 120 corporations being wrongly selected for tax audits in 2024 and 2025, the Board of Audit and Inspection said on the 27th. The audit board said a regular audit of the NTS conducted in May and June last year found 23 issues, including 11 cases requiring caution and 12 notifications. According to the findings, 30 corporations in 2024 and 90 in 2025 were improperly chosen for audits on suspicion of inaccurate filings. In assessing corporate compliance ratings used as a key audit-selection standard, the NTS failed to apply base scores of 18 to 32 points for some items and instead treated them as zero, making those companies appear less compliant than others, the audit board said. The audit board said similar problems occurred in selecting audit targets among individual business owners. Regional tax offices are supposed to choose actual audit targets in order of higher suspected evasion after receiving a list from NTS headquarters, but in 59 cases they selected targets arbitrarily, such as by simply following the order of names on the list. It also said five people who should have been audited were improperly excluded because checks on name matches and audit history were inadequate. The audit board also notified the NTS to prepare improvements, saying its “tax filing compliance evaluation system” was broadly unreasonably designed, including items unrelated to compliance. Auditors also found 22 cases in which assets were transferred within families in what appeared to be disguised gifts, but the NTS failed to filter them out and recognized them as sales transactions. Under the rules, if a recipient does not properly pay for transferred assets, the transaction should be presumed a gift and taxed accordingly. The audit board said the NTS did not properly collect additional taxes in deals that effectively looked like gifts, such as taking only a 10% down payment and treating the remainder as an interest-free loan. The audit board said it confirmed 22 cases, totaling 81.7 billion won, that lacked “customary and economic rationality” and raised doubts about their authenticity despite being accepted as sales. It said a re-examination is needed on whether to presume gifts to curb irregular transfers disguised as sales. The audit board also said the NTS took no action after receiving a list of people who improperly obtained value-added tax exemptions by lending their names to medical businesses, including so-called “paper-owner” hospitals. It warned that 31 billion won could go uncollected and that the NTS had already missed the assessment deadline for 26.7 billion won. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 15:00:20

Foodtech’s Frandy Launches AI QSC Service to Digitize Franchise Store Management Foodtech Co., an IT solutions company for the restaurant industry led by CEO Choi Jun-young, said its franchise operations brand Frandy has officially launched a new store management service, “Frandy AI QSC.” QSC—quality, service and cleanliness—is a core set of metrics used in franchise operations. While headquarters use it to maintain brand standards and review store performance, many field checks still rely on supervisor visits and handwritten checklists. Foodtech said that approach often leaves results as simple records and makes it difficult to link issues to performance indicators such as sales, menu mix and operating efficiency. As the number of franchisees grows, it also becomes harder for headquarters to monitor stores consistently and provide clear improvement guidance. Frandy AI QSC is designed to address those limits by combining POS data with QSC inspections. It analyzes store-by-store sales and menu performance alongside QSC indicators to quantify operating conditions and pinpoint areas needing improvement. The company said brands using Foodtech’s Mate POS can conduct more detailed analysis through POS-based data integration, allowing users to review inspection results together with sales trends, menu performance and store operating indicators. Foodtech also highlighted gains in supervisor efficiency. It said supervisors have typically spent significant time after visits completing checklists, compiling results and preparing reports. With regularly updated data, Frandy AI QSC is intended to reduce the time and cost supervisors spend on on-site checks and follow-up management. The service is available on both a website and a mobile app. Supervisors can review store performance using data recorded and analyzed by Frandy AI and provide customized operating guidance based on accumulated data. Headquarters and franchise owners can also share results and improvement items through reports, with an interface designed to be easy to use. Foodtech said evaluation items can be set to match each brand’s operating strategy, allowing brands to adjust criteria depending on whether they prioritize quality, service or cleanliness and to design inspection systems suited to their business type and store characteristics. Some franchise brands confirmed adoption ahead of the official launch. Foodtech said Ma Wang Jokbal and Got Twiggin Fried, among others, introduced Frandy AI QSC in advance and began operating it with the launch, reflecting demand from franchise headquarters to move from manual QSC management to a data-driven system. Frandy previously launched as a franchise operations platform, emphasizing menu data cleansing and AI-based analysis. Foodtech said it developed AI-based menu data cleansing technology to address problems caused by inconsistent menu names and options across stores, which can hinder analysis. The new QSC service marks an expansion from menu analysis into store operations management, the company said. Frandy said it plans to further develop receipt data-based menu cleansing technology and accelerate work on an integrated platform linking franchise operations, including menu structure standardization and sales data integration. A Frandy official said, “QSC should no longer be just an inspection tool; it must become a core system that improves store performance and supports shared growth between headquarters and franchise owners.” The official added, “Through Frandy AI QSC, we will help shift operating standards in Korea’s franchise industry toward a digital-first approach and strengthen brand competitiveness.”* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 14:59:15

Nitori Opens 13th Thailand Store at Bangkok’s Emsphere, Plans Further Expansion Furniture and home interior company Nitori Holdings opened its 13th store in Thailand on April 24 at Emsphere, a commercial complex in Bangkok. The company said it plans to add at least one more store within the year. Over the medium term, it aims to build an 80-store network by 2032 and to raise its pace of openings to 10 stores a year. The new store is on the second floor of Emsphere and covers 600 square meters. It carries about 3,500 items, mainly household goods, and has the highest share of new products among Nitori’s existing stores in Thailand. A 44-year-old Thai woman who visited on opening day told NNA, “It’s my first time at a Nitori store, and there were many affordable and attractive products, especially small items that stood out. I was satisfied because I also trust Japanese brands.” Nitori Holdings President Toshiyuki Shirai described Emsphere as “an important commercial hub with strong potential in terms of location, customer base and brand strength.” He said the site draws shoppers with high purchasing power and sits along the BTS Skytrain line, making it well positioned to attract customers from a wide area, adding that the company had been considering opening there for some time. Swedish furniture retailer IKEA also has a store on the complex’s third floor. Shirai said a competing store could increase overall foot traffic and that an environment where customers can compare products and choose is positive. He also cited as a challenge that product functionality and convenience have not been fully communicated to Thai consumers, and said the company wants to strengthen its appeal. Looking ahead, Shirai said Nitori wants to pursue a strategy of concentrated openings in specific areas of Bangkok while also expanding into provincial cities. He said a return to profitability within the year is possible, but indicated the company will prioritize expanding its store network over securing profits for now because investment burdens come first with new openings.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 14:58:30

Hanwha-Daewoo Consortium Wins Contractor Role for Sindebang Station Redevelopment in Seoul Hanwha’s construction division and Daewoo Engineering & Construction said on the 27th that their consortium has secured the construction contract for the Sindebang Station area redevelopment project in Dongjak-gu, Seoul. The project’s residents’ representative council held a general meeting of members on the 25th and confirmed the Hanwha-Daewoo consortium as the builder. It is the first redevelopment project Hanwha’s construction division has won this year. The site is in Sindebang-dong, Dongjak-gu, around 600-14. On a 58,747-square-meter lot, the plan calls for 11 apartment buildings ranging from seven basement levels to 29 stories above ground. The complex will have 1,586 households, with total construction costs of 581.7 billion won. The complex is to be built near Sindebang Station on Seoul Subway Line 2 and the planned Sinansan Line. The planned name is “Forena Prugio Boramae.” The consortium said it improved the design from the existing plan to add 61 households and proposed measures aimed at reducing members’ cost burdens. An alternative design focused on efficiency and specialized design features intended to enhance market appeal were reported to have been well received during the selection process. Plans call for a resort-style residential complex with a central courtyard and themed parks. The exterior will apply Hanwha Forena’s aluminum art wall and patterned facade design. About 95% of units will face south, based on 10 floor-plan types, with a higher share of slab-type layouts. A public pedestrian walkway will link the central plaza to Sindebang Station on Line 2 and the planned Sinansan Line station, a design intended to improve residents’ mobility. A sky lounge on the 29th floor is also planned, with views of Boramae Park. A Hanwha Construction Division official said the consortium will “push the project forward in a stable manner” based on the two companies’ construction experience and aims to complete a residential complex “befitting a key hub in southwestern Seoul.”* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 14:57:43