A Korean multi-unit house (dagagu jutaek) holds several households under one roof, and for capital gains tax the number of homes it counts as depends on how you sell it. Article 155(15) of the Income Tax Act Enforcement Decree treats a dagagu house under Annex 1, item 1(c) of the Building Act Enforcement Decree as one home for each part divided off for a household, but if it is sold as one unit, the whole building is one home. Enter floors, floor area, households, how you sell, any shop area and the price to see whether it is a dagagu house, how many homes it counts as, and whether it crosses the 1.2 billion won high-value line.
1. A dagagu house is one home per divided part — but sold whole as one unit, the whole building is one home (Art. 155(15)).
2. What makes it a dagagu house — at most 3 floors used as housing, at most 660 m² of housing floor area in one building, and at most 19 households (Building Act Decree, Annex 1).
3. Our example — a 3-floor, 600 m², 9-household building sold whole for 1.1 billion won is one home, within 1.2 billion won. Sold for 1.4 billion won it is a high-value home.
Checker
Results update as you type. Leave out basements, and leave out the ground floor if all or part of it is a piloti car park and the rest is used for something other than housing (Annex 1). We treat housing floor area (Building Act) and housing gross floor area (Income Tax Decree Art. 154(3)) as the same figure, and we do not check the other one-home conditions such as the holding period.
The provisions
| Provision | What it says | Note (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| Decree Art. 155(15) | For Article 154(1), a dagagu house under Annex 1, item 1(c) of the Building Act Enforcement Decree is treated as one home for each part divided off so that one household can live independently. But if it is sold as one unit rather than part by part, the whole is one home. | Main text: several homes; proviso: one home — the split is how you sell |
| Building Act Decree, Annex 1, item 1(c) | Dagagu house: floors used as housing (excluding basements) 3 or fewer; housing floor area of one building 660 m² or less; 19 households or fewer (households of all buildings on the plot added up) — and not a multi-family building | Exceed any one and it is not a dagagu house |
| Decree Art. 156(3) | A dagagu house treated as a detached house under Article 155(15) is treated as one home as a whole when applying the main text of Act Article 89(1)3. | The 1.2 billion won test uses the whole building's price |
| Decree Art. 154(3) | Where one building combines housing and non-housing parts … the whole is treated as housing. But where the housing gross floor area is less than or equal to the non-housing area, the non-housing part is not housing. | The second split for a dagagu house with a ground-floor shop |
Annex 1 also says how to count floors. For a dagagu house, if all or part of the ground floor is a piloti car park and the rest is used for something other than housing, that floor is left out of the housing floors, and basements are left out too. So a "four-storey" building whose ground floor is a piloti car park and a shop has 3 floors used as housing. Act Article 89(1)3 excludes from the one-home exemption a high-value home whose actual sale price, with its land, exceeds 1.2 billion won, and Decree Article 156(2) adds the value of any part treated as housing under the main text of Article 154(3) to that price.
The order the checker follows — our reading
| Step | What it checks | Note (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Is it a dagagu house? | 3 floors or fewer · 660 m² or less · 19 households or fewer | Fail any and Art. 155(15) is not used — the dasedae, yeollip or apartment "size" is shown from floors and area |
| 2. How is it sold? | Whole → 1 home / part by part → one home per household unit | Sold part by part, each part and the parts left over are all homes |
| 3. Is there a shop? | Housing area larger than non-housing area: all housing | Equal or smaller: only the housing part — the shop share is outside the exemption |
| 4. Above 1.2 billion won? | Actual price of the whole (or the housing part) when it counts as one home | Above it, a high-value home — the taxed share is worked out in the apportionment post |
Five sums — our examples
| Example (ours) | Result | Note (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 floors, 600 m², 9 households, sold whole for 1.1 billion won (1,100,000,000 won) | 1 home, within 1.2 billion won | Fully exempt if the other one-home conditions are met |
| The same building sold unit by unit | 9 homes (9 divided parts) | Art. 155(15) main text — each part is one home |
| Rooftop turned into housing, so 4 floors are used as housing | Not a dagagu house; the size of a dasedae house | 660 m² or less and 4 floors or fewer is the Annex's dasedae line — how many homes is decided from the register and the facts |
| 3 floors, 600 m², 9 households + 200 m² ground-floor shop, sold whole for 1.4 billion won (1,400,000,000 won) | All housing, a high-value home | 600 m² is larger than 200 m², so the shop counts as housing (Art. 154(3) main text) — the share above 1.2 billion won is taxed |
| 600 m² housing + 700 m² shop, sold whole for 1.4 billion won, housing part 900 million won | Only the housing part is housing; within 1.2 billion won | The shop is larger, so its share is outside the exemption (Art. 154(3) proviso) |
As in the third example, once a building falls outside the dagagu conditions the checker does not give a number of homes. Article 155(15) applies only to a dagagu house that "falls under" Annex 1, item 1(c), so how a building outside those conditions is counted as a multi-family building (a dasedae house, for instance) has to be decided from the building register, the land register and how it is actually used (our reading). Check first which pilotis and basements drop out of the floor count.
Related posts
- The basic one-home exemption — one-household one-home exemption; the 2-year holding and residence rule in the holding and residence checker.
- The share above 1.2 billion won — capital gains apportionment above 1.2bn (with a mixed-use chart).
- Land around the house — attached land exemption calculator.
- Selling your own home while letting out rentals — long-term rental residence-home exemption checker.
Checklist
- ☐ Does the building register show a dagagu house, with 3 or fewer floors used as housing?
- ☐ Has a rooftop or attic been turned into housing, adding a floor?
- ☐ Is the housing floor area of the building 660 m² or less, for 19 households or fewer?
- ☐ Selling part by part or all at once — one sale contract
- ☐ With a shop, compare housing and shop floor areas
- ☐ Does the total actual price exceed 1.2 billion won?
Questions that remain
If a dagagu house is all I own, is it one home?
The proviso to Article 155(15) treats the whole as one home when it is sold as one unit. The other Article 154(1) conditions, such as the 2-year holding period, still have to be met.
What if I sell just one floor?
Under the main text each divided part is one home, so the parts you keep remain homes as well. The checker then shows one home per household.
How is a dagagu house different from a dasedae house?
In Annex 1 a dagagu house is a kind of detached house, while a dasedae house is a multi-family building with 660 m² or less of housing floor area per building and 4 floors or fewer. Article 155(15) does not cover a dasedae house.
Sources
- Korea Law Information Center — Income Tax Act Enforcement Decree Arts. 154, 155 and 156 — source (current text, in force 1 October 2026, Presidential Decree No. 36737; checked 10 November 2026). Dagagu houses (Art. 155(15)), mixed-use buildings (Art. 154(3)(4)), high-value homes (Art. 156(1)(2)(3)).
- Korea Law Information Center — Income Tax Act Art. 89 — source (current text, in force 1 July 2026, Act No. 21221; checked 10 November 2026). The 1.2 billion won high-value exclusion.
- Korea Law Information Center — Building Act Enforcement Decree, Annex 1 — source (current text, in force 6 October 2026, Presidential Decree No. 36746, annex PDF; checked 10 November 2026). The lines for dagagu, apartment, yeollip and dasedae houses, and the pilotis and basements left out of the floor count.
- Not read. Rulings and cases on whether an illegally extended building (a rooftop addition, say) is still a dagagu house, how a mismatch between the building register and actual use is decided, and the land-ratio details for dagagu houses.
- What we added. The order of checks, treating floor area and gross floor area as the same figure, the dasedae, yeollip and apartment "size" labels, and the notes column.
Where to check further
- Building register — use (dagagu house), use and area by floor, number of households.
- National Tax Service Hometax or your tax office — preliminary capital gains return and the one-home exemption.
Written on 10 November 2026. The provisions are quoted from the source; the reading and the sums are ours.
