By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter

Nearly half of taxpayers subject to property tax reside in the so-called "bubble seven" area, according to the nation's tax agency.

The area is the speculation-prone region, or place with real estate bubbles that were designated by the administration of former President Roh Moo-hyun.

According to the National Tax Service (NTS), the number of people who are subject to the "comprehensive real estate tax" totaled 412,500 last year. It was introduced during the previous administration to curb real estate prices and remove tax loopholes for the wealthy. Those who own houses worth 600 million won or over are subject to the tax.

These people shouldered a combined 2.3 trillion won in taxes.

It turned out that nearly half of these property taxpayers reside in bubble seven areas. Among them are the Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa districts in southern Seoul; Mokdong in southwestern Seoul; and Bundang, Yongin and Pyeongchon in Gyeonggi Province.

Most of the taxpayers, or 86.2 percent, were residents of Seoul and its vicinity, including the bubble seven areas, showing the imbalanced concentration of wealth in the metropolitan area.

In provinces, meanwhile, there were only a few affluent people who are subject to the tax. On Jeju, for example, only 1,900 people paid the tax last year.

The property prices gap is widening between Seoul and the provinces.

According to Kookmin Bank, apartment prices in Seoul rose by 50.4 percent from six years ago, recording the biggest jump. Apartment prices in Busan, meanwhile, rose by only 3.3 percent during the six years. Daegu and Daejeon also grew less than 10 percent during the period, smaller than the consumer price rise of 16.8 percent.

The tax agency's data also showed that there are many people with more than 10 homes. The number of people who owned 11 houses or more totaled 9,165, and they paid 15 million won in taxes on average.

Those who owned between six to 10 homes totaled 14,081. Forty percent of taxpayers subject to the comprehensive real estate taxes had two homes or more.

chizpizza@koreatimes.co.kr