How Much Are Chairmen’s Residences Worth?

The government revealed the prices of the homes of major conglomerate chairmen in its public announcement on house prices across the country.

Most chairmen’s houses are lordly mansions and rarely traded in the house market, which have made it difficult to ascertain their exact price.

Yesterday, the Fair Trade Commission announced the real estate value of homes owned by the chairmen of the top 19 companies, excluding public enterprises and conglomerates that are subject to the limits imposed on the amount of investment among subsidy companies such as Lotte, SK, and Hyosung. According to this announcement, their homes are valued at 2.35 billion won on average.

Given the fact that the real estate value estimated by the government usually accounts for just 80 percent of the market price, the real average price is assumed to be about 2.95 billion won.

The areas most favored by chairmen are Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, in which six out of the 19 currently reside.

The corporate mogul who owns the highest-priced house is CJ Group Chairman Lee Jae-hyun, who is living in Jangchung-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul.

The price of this house is 6.58 billion won, which translates to 8.2 billion won when evaluated in market value. However, the owner of this house, according to legal documents, is Lee Gun-hee, Chairman of the Samsung Group, the uncle of Chairman Lee Jae-hyun.

The owner who possesses the house with the second highest price tag is Hyun Jung-eun, Chairwoman of the Hyundai Group, whose home in Seongbuk-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul is priced at 4.54 billion won.

In third place is Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, whose house is priced at 3.99 billion won, or about five billion won in market value. The house is located in Gahoe-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

The forth place is taken by Lee Gun-hee, Chairman of the Samsung Group, whose house is priced at 2.78 billion won, and located in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Given his number one tycoon status in the nation, his house doesn’t seem to meet his status. However, since Lee plans to move out after finishing a house, construction on which is under way near his current residence, his ranking is expected to change sooner or later.

Meanwhile, Daelim Chairman Lee Jun-yong came in fifth place with a house priced at 2.73 billion won, located in Sinmun-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo, whose total assets rank second in the financial world, has two buildings in his home compound, which are, however, valued at only 1.839 billion won combined. This is lower than the average value of homes owned by the nation’s chairmen.

Chairmen prefer to live in the Gangbuk area to the Gangnam area. Out of a total of 19, 17 reside in the Gangbuk area and 16 have single-family houses.

Therefore, areas which are clustered with fine houses, such as Hannam-dong in Yongsan-gu, Seongbuk-dong in Seongbuk-gu, and Pyeongchang-dong in Jongno-gu are preferred areas among Chairmen.

However, POSCO Chairman Lee Ku-taek and LS Chairman Koo Ja-hong reside in luxury houses with several stories (called “villas” in Korea) in the Gangnam area and GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo reside in an apartment house—the sole case among chairmen.

POSCO Chairman Lee’s residence, located Poi-dong, Gangnam-gu, is priced at 800 million won, and LS Chairman Koo’s, located around Dosan Park, Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, is priced at 1.7 billion won. Koo’s farther, LS Honorary Chairman Koo Tae-hoe, resides on the lower floor of LS Chairman Koo’s residence.

GS Group Chairman Huh is living in a penthouse priced at 2.2 billion won, the finest unit in the Ichon-dong, Yongsan-gu complex of “Xi” Apartments, constructed by GS Construction, an affiliated company of the GS Group.

Jae-Seong Hwang imsoo@donga.com jsonhng@donga.com