Who lives in poshest residence?

Chaebol children

prefer apartments,

villas in Gangnam

Chung Yong-jin Shinsegae Group vice chairman

Lee Jay-yong Samsung Electronics vice chairman

Chung Eui-sun Hyundai Motors vice chairman

Choi Jae-won SK Group vice chairman

By Rachel Lee

Shinsegae

Group Vice Chairman Chung

Yong

-

jin owns the most expensive houses in Korea, an online business data provider said Wednesday.

The declared value of the two properties owned by the 44-year-old businessman combines to 10.68 billion won, the highest among the second-generation leaders of the country’s corporations, according to Chaebul.com. It closely monitors developments of the nation’s conglomerates known as chaebol. The probe was carried out on the country’s top 100 business groups.

The officially announced price for a total of 52 houses owned by the top 50 surveyed is 121.4 billion won.

Of the two houses owned by Chung, a detached property in Gyeonggi province is priced at 8.1 billion won, the most expensive out of all on the list and the other in Seoul’s Yongsan district was assessed at 2.58 billion won.

Lim Sae-ryung ranks second. The 37-year-old business woman, the granddaughter of the honorary president of Daesang Group, owns two houses in Seoul’s Gangnam district valued at 4.23 billion and 2.96 billion won.

She is followed by Park Chul-wan, the second son of Kumho Group Chairman Park Sam-koo, and Cho Hyun Bum

,

president of Hankook Tire and Lee Seo-hyun, the vice president of Cheil Industries and the youngest daughter of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, with declared housing values of 5.2 billion, 4.85 billion and 4.76 billion won respectively.

Senior Vice Chairman Choi Jae

won of SK Group is next. The younger brother of Chairman Choi Tae-won owns a luxurious villa in southern Seoul, which has an estimated value of 4.11 billion won.

Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chairman Chung Eui

Sun,

the eldest son of group Chairman Chung Mong-Koo, comes in seventh, followed by Lee Boo-jin, the eldest daughter of Lee Kun-hee and the president of Hotel Shilla and Samsung Everland, and Lee Jae

yong, Lee’s son and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics.

However, the value of the houses owned by Kim Dong

kwan, Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-youn's eldest son, and an executive at Hanwha SolarOne, was the lowest (490 million won) of those surveyed, followed by Korean Air Executive Vice President Cho Won-tae, the son of Hanjin Group and Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho.

When it comes to the type of house and location, the second generation’s preference is clearly different from their parents.

According to the Chaebul.com, the second-generation leaders prefer apartments and villas in Gangnam, an affluent, trendy area in southern Seoul, over detached houses.

Out of the 52 houses, 29 (55.8 percent) are apartments and the rest are detached houses, whereas 74.4 percent of the houses owned by their parents are detached properties.

As far as location is concerned, more second-generation leaders choose to live in southern part of Seoul.

Half of the houses owned by them are located in northern Seoul and 46.2 percent of their houses in the southern part, whereas 76.5 percent of houses owned by their parents are situated in the northern part of the capital.

“Due to privacy risks, the heads of the conglomerate have long chosen to live in detached houses located in northern parts of Seoul,” said Jeong Sun-sup, head of

Chaebul.com. “But for the second-generation leaders, it’s different. Convenience is more important than privacy so they prefer apartments and villas in the affluent Gangnam district.”