Two reliefs attach only to a single-house household: one for age (20%, 30%, 40%) and one for holding period (20%, 40%, 50%). They are added together. But the tables add to 90% at the top, and the law cuts the combined figure at 80%.
1. The tables reach 90%; the statutory cap is 80%. 10 points are cut off (art. 9(5) — “within a combined limit of 80/100”).
2. Two different routes land on 80% exactly. Age 65 with 15 years (30% + 50%) and age 70 with 10 years (40% + 40%) — and once there, neither more years nor more age adds anything.
3. An 80% relief cuts the tax to exactly one fifth. On a published price of KRW 2bn, 2,664,000 won becomes 532,800 won (example).
All nine combinations
Three age bands and three holding bands make nine combinations. Three of them hit the cap — 65 with 15 years, 70 with 10, and 70 with 15. The first two add to exactly 80%, so nothing is lost; the only cell where 10 points are actually cut off is age 70 with 15 years.
| Age | Relief | Held for | Relief |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 to under 65 | 20% | 5 to under 10 years | 20% |
| 65 to under 70 | 30% | 10 to under 15 years | 40% |
| 70 or over | 40% | 15 years or more | 50% |
The steps are not the same size. Age rises 10 points every five years; holding rises 20 then 10. So the holding side moves harder early — crossing from five years to ten is 20 points in one step.
What the 10 points are worth
On a published price of KRW 2bn at age 70 with 15 years or more, the figure above is the difference between the 90% the tables would give and the 80% the law allows. Cutting 10 points here doubles what is left, from 10% to 20%, so the tax doubles exactly.
As a proportion that is large, but the absolute amounts in this band are small: a long-holding older owner of a single home has already had relief stacked on relief. The cap bites hardest where the published price is much higher — the same 10 points multiply a much bigger number.
When this relief does not apply
Not a single-house household, not a won of it. With two houses the relief is zero at any age and any holding period. Two houses at a published price of KRW 2bn come to 3,895,200 won — against 532,800 won for the same value held as a single home at 70 with 20 years.
A home held jointly by spouses is not a single-house household by default. Each spouse takes the KRW 900m deduction instead, and neither gets this relief. Electing the joint-ownership treatment makes one of them the single-house household, with the KRW 1.2bn deduction and this relief. Which is better flips with age and holding period — the older and longer-held the case, the more the election wins.
This relief applies after the property-tax offset, not before. Reversing the order changes the answer. The calculator shows the sequence.
Held jointly by spouses — you also choose which one
A home split between spouses is not a single-house household by default. Art. 10-2 supplies the election: the person who owns the home jointly with a spouse, or that spouse, “as prescribed by Presidential Decree”, may be made the taxpayer for it (para. 1) — and then “the jointly-named single-house owner shall be treated as a single-house household” for the base, the rate and the tax (para. 3). The KRW 1.2bn deduction and this relief come together.
Here is the part that is rarely mentioned. Who "prescribed by Presidential Decree" means is settled by Decree art. 5-2(3): “the person the co-owners settle on by agreement” (amended 27 February 2026). And para. 8 of the same article — in fixing the single-house relief, “the age and holding period of the jointly-named single-house owner shall govern”.
So the relief rate turns on which of the two is named. If one is 70 with 15 years and the other 60 with 5, naming the first gives 80% and naming the second gives 40%. The article says “by agreement”, so this is a choice, not a fact.
The rest is computed on the combined shares (para. 6). The property tax used for the offset and for the burden cap is “the amount computed on the whole of the share in the one taxable home” (para. 7) — one house, not half of one.
The window is in the article itself — 16 September to 30 September (Act art. 10-2(2)). Once filed, later years need a fresh filing only when something changes (Decree art. 5-2(5)).
Questions that remain
As at what date are age and holding measured?
1 June, the assessment date. A birthday on 2 June leaves you in the earlier band for that year.
When does the holding period start?
At acquisition. The clock carries over in two cases — Decree art. 4-5. (1) A home rebuilt or redeveloped after being lost to fire, collapse or age counts “from the day the lost home was acquired”; (2) a home inherited from a spouse counts “from the day the deceased acquired it”.
Note the words “from a spouse” — a home inherited from a parent does not reach this paragraph. And both cases require papers filed during the holdings-report window (para. 3, inserted 28 February 2025); after the first filing, later years may be skipped if nothing changed. If 15 years is close, start here — it is the difference between 40% and 50%.
At 70 with 15 years the tables say 90%. Why 80%?
Because the article says the two “may be applied together within a combined limit of 80/100” (art. 9(5)). Each is computed, then added, and anything above 80% is treated as 80%. So past 15 years, holding longer adds nothing to this relief.
What is the fastest route to 80%?
Age 70 with 10 years (40% + 40%). Age 65 with 15 years (30% + 50%) lands on the same figure. The two routes meeting exactly is how the tables are built. But a holding period can be built and an age cannot, so what is actually movable is the holding period and whose name the home is in.
How does this interact with the burden cap?
When last year's figure is recomputed for the comparison, last year's age and holding period are used. Decree art. 5(2)(ii), in brackets — “for a single-house household, the amount computed applying the age and holding period as at the assessment date of the previous year”.
So turning 70 this year and moving up to 40% does not lift the comparison: it is still last year computed at 69, and the ceiling (150% of that) sits lower to match. And what the cap measures is not the holding tax alone but the property tax and the holding tax added together, the “total tax equivalent on the housing” (art. 10) — drawn out in the calculator piece.
Sources
Comprehensive Real Estate Holding Tax Act, effective 1 January 2026 (Act No. 21224) — art. 9(5) the combined 80/100 limit, art. 9(6) age at 20%/30%/40%, art. 9(8) holding at 20%/40%/50%, art. 9(3) the property-tax offset, art. 10 the 150% burden cap.
Act art. 10-2 (special rule for a jointly-named single-house owner) — para. 1 who may be made the taxpayer, para. 2 the window of 16 to 30 September, para. 3 computing as a single-house household.
Enforcement Decree — art. 4-5 (holding period: rebuilding, and inheritance from a spouse; para. 3 the papers), art. 5(2)(ii) (last year recomputed on last year's age and holding), art. 5-2 (para. 3 the person settled on by agreement, para. 6 shares combined, para. 7 property tax on the whole share, para. 8 the relief follows that person).
The articles were opened and read directly on the national statute portal. All three paragraphs were checked separately, and all nine combinations were computed to confirm that three reach the cap and only one cell actually loses anything to it. The holding-period clock, the burden cap and the joint election were filled in from the Decree this time — each was marked “not confirmed” in the earlier version.
The worked figures use the same calculation as the comprehensive real estate tax calculator — a published price of KRW 2bn, no property-tax reduction or local adjustment, and no burden cap.
Where to check further
The acquisition date on the register. That is where the holding period starts.
The joint-ownership election. 16 to 30 September (Act art. 10-2(2)).
Hometax, the simplified estimate. It runs on the age and holding period the tax office holds.
