By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
A three-bedroom luxury villa in Hannam-dong was newly vacated last weekend with almost a year still left on the contract term, the latest addition to the pile of prematurely emptied units area property broker Kim Sung-oh has to find tenants for.
He said a rush of fresh housing has become unexpectedly available on the property market as many of his foreign corporate clients are packing up to return home on short notice.
``These units they've been living in are huge and expensive, so it's tough to find a replacement in this kind of economy,'' said Kim, adding that most of the residences range from $5,000 to $8,000 in monthly rent.
Multinational firms typically give benefit packages that cover housing, auto and education costs to employees dispatched overseas. But as cash-strapped firms try to downsize or cut spending on their overseas offices, their bosses are apparently calling many foreign executives here home.
The number of premature terminations of rental contracts has gone up about 20 percent since the end of last year, says Hwang Sung-woo, an agent at Beat Real Estate, who primarily works with American and European corporate clients looking for homes in Hannam-dong and Itaewon.
He said ambassadors and U.S. military officials rarely deal a huge impact on their business because their transit is consistent, but corporate clients have a much bigger influence.
``The situation has drastically worsened starting this year,'' Hwang said, adding that many of his former clients worked for GM Daewoo, AIG Life and other well-known global firms.
Sources say that companies like Diageo, 3M and Macquarie have also recently sent some of their foreign employees back home.
But all of the companies denied the restructuring Thursday, stressing that no employee has left Korea for cost-cutting purposes.
``We may have had a few leave after their official contract period was over, but there were none who departed suddenly over other reasons,'' said a GM Daewoo executive, who declined to be named.
Despite the denial, businesses closely linked to the expatriate community such as schools and health clubs say they've recently been noticing sudden departures. For example, officials at ECLC and Rainbow Children Center, English-speaking kindergartens in Hannam-dong, said the number of dropouts on short notice have gone up this year.
``I have a lot of farewell parties to go to these days,'' said one American engineer who has been working in Korea for three years. ``It's unfortunate to see people leave when they're just getting used to life in Korea.''