Kim Soo Hyun, who successfully wrapped up the drama Queen of Tears, purchased a three-bedroom apartment at the high-end Galleria Forest complex in Seongsu neighborhood in January of this year. This brings Kim Soo Hyun’s total number of apartments at Galleria Forest to three.
The average price per 3.3 square meters at the complex is around 100 million won ($73,000), so the estimated price of the three apartments he owns is between 28 billion won ($20.4 million) and 30 billion won ($22 million). It is reported that Kim Soo Hyun purchased the three apartments for about 16.7 billion won ($12.2 million), which means he is seeing a capital gain of between 11.6 billion ($8.5 million) won and 13.6 billion won ($9.9 million).
While many celebrities like Kim Soo Hyun have made profits through real estate investments, there are also cases where they have suffered losses.
>> Kim Soo Hyun’s Savvy Real Estate Investments Skyrocket in Value
Kim Tae Hee and Rain
Kim Tae Hee and Rain are Korea’s hottest celebrity real estate moguls, with a combined portfolio estimated at over 80 billion won ($64 million). Back in 2021, they bought the Samyoung Building in Seocho for 92 billion won ($73 million). Rain owns the majority stake at 60%, while the rest belongs to a company set up by his wife, Kim Tae Hee.
Some experts think they way overpaid for the place. The building was only bringing in about 200 million won ($146,000) each month in rent at the time of the couple’s purchase. If every space in the building was rented out, it could bring in 2.4 billion won ($1.8 million) per year. However, many experts believe the building wasn’t worth what they paid for it as the rent they get back is a very small percentage of around 2.6% compared to the massive price they paid.
So Ji Sub
So Ji Sub purchased a 15-story building with three underground floors in Yeoksam-dong under his own name in 2018. It was reported that he financed 21 billion won ($15.3 million) of the total purchase price of 29.3 billion won ($21.4 million) through a loan. However, he resold the building for 31.7 billion won ($23.2 million) after only about 1 year and 4 months. The reasons for the sale were reportedly due to concerns about vacancy rates and interest payments. Considering the 1.5 billion won ($1.1 million) in acquisition tax, industry experts concluded that he did not make any profit out of the transaction.
Choi Si Won
Choi Si Won reportedly purchased a building in Apgujeong in 2015 for more than 30% above the market price. He even tore down the old building and built a new one but was unable to fill the vacancy for four months and eventually put the building back on the market. Experts say the location might be to blame. The Apgujeong Rodeo area was starting to lose its shine, and that made it tough to rent out the space.
Yoon Eun Hye
Yoon Eun Hye purchased a two-story building with a basement in Yeoksam-dong 10 years ago. The total cost of the building at that time was 1.65 billion won ($1.2 million) including a 900 million won ($657,000) loan.
However, she became embroiled in a legal dispute with a tenant who failed to pay rent for an extended period. Although she won the lawsuit, she was unable to find a new tenant for a year afterward. This is reportedly because most of the people who came to view the building refused to sign a lease after seeing the interior layout. Finally, she sold the building for 1.8 billion won in November 2012, 150 million won ($110,000) more than her purchase price. However, it is difficult to consider this a successful real estate investment considering the various expenses and the damage to her image caused by the lawsuit.
