Quote:
Originally Posted by LiquidTurbo
What's going on in Korea?
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Korea had a housing bust a few years ago. During the early-mid 2000s, people with new money kept flipping properties for profit. That caught on with other Koreans (as does everything else it seems), and soon people were taking out mortgages multiple times their salary. A mixture of speculation with the lack of affordability and oversupply caused housing prices in Seoul to fall 15% within the last five years. As a result, an increasing amount of apartment buildings are left unfinished and/or unsold.
There are actually stories of construction bosses making their employees purchase apartments, and due to the way Korean culture is with loyalty and hierarchy, employees would actually take out mortgages in fear of their careers suffering. It's a catch-22, because now they're all fucked with debt.