IVE member Ahn Yu-jin. [IVE Instagram]
IVE member Ahn Yu-jin. [IVE Instagram]

News that Ahn Yu-jin, a member of K-pop girl group IVE, won a spot in a "lottery" apartment subscription in Gangnam has prompted sharp criticism of the country's housing subscription system.

According to Maeil Business Newspaper, Ahn won a unit in the general pre-sale draw for "The H Bangbae," a complex set for move-in this September.

The complex held its general pre-sale in August 2024. Pre-sale prices ranged from 1.7 billion won ($1.13 million) for the highest-priced unit with an exclusive use area of 59 square meters to 2.24 billion won for 84 square meters, 2.5 billion won for 101 square meters and 2.76 billion won for 114 square meters.

With the price ceiling on new apartments applied, the units were assessed at the time as being priced up to nearly 1 billion won below surrounding market prices.

Home prices have risen further since then, making the potential profit margin even larger. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's actual transaction price disclosure system, a move-in right for an 84-square-meter unit traded at 3.69 billion won in April — about 1.45 billion won above the original pre-sale price. The current asking price stands at around 4 billion won, nearly 1.8 billion won above the pre-sale price.

It has not been confirmed whether Ahn actually won a unit or which unit size she was allocated.

The news that a top-tier idol singer earning substantial income had also landed a lottery-style apartment subscription win left many genuine homebuyers frustrated. The current subscription system is designed to guarantee housing opportunities for owner-occupiers without homes, imposing eligibility restrictions and applying the price ceiling on new apartments — yet it ended up benefiting a celebrity who could easily afford to buy a home without any such assistance.

One user posted on Blind, an anonymous online community for office workers, saying the incident had given grounds to "tear apart the corrupt subscription system." The user said the current system "gives lottery-like opportunities only to the very few who have liquid cash available," adding that "ordinary young people don't have that kind of liquid cash — the same amount as Ahn Yu-jin. Even in a lottery draw, the real problem is that the eligibility to enter the draw in the first place is a wall too high to clear."

Opinions are divided, however, on exactly which aspect of the subscription system is at fault.

Some point to loan regulations that effectively limit high-priced apartment subscriptions to cash-rich buyers. Apartments in prime areas of Seoul — particularly Gangnam — carry the highest potential for price appreciation and capital gains, yet the current rules funnel those opportunities exclusively to cash-wealthy individuals like Ahn, critics said.

Others argue that the price ceiling on new apartments, rather than loan regulations, is the root problem. By allowing only a tiny number of people to reap large windfall profits, the system hands unearned income to those already wealthy enough to subscribe for a Gangnam apartment and stokes speculative sentiment, they said. Critics called it a system that fails to stabilize the real estate market while lacking fairness.


paq@heraldcorp.com