Within the Lee Jae-myung administration's framework of "housing, employment, and inclusive finance," institutionalize the public capture of land value increments, providing a stable fiscal source for public housing supply and the National Pension Service that does not depend on taxation of the working population. But single-country execution is structurally insufficient. The proposal includes a coordination layer — bilateral agreements on information sharing, home-country taxing rights, exit tax mutual recognition, and effective tax rate audit — that prevents capital escape from dismantling the capture mechanism.
1.1 Public Rental Housing: Where Are the 95 Cents?
National public rental housing waitlist: 93,497 people. Actual move-ins in 2026: 7,779 units. Supply rate: 8.3%. Longest wait: Incheon permanent rental 16 years 5 months, non-capital region national rental 12 years 1 month, Seoul permanent rental 8 years 10 months. Nine local governments — Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Ulsan, Gangwon, Chungnam, Jeonbuk, Sejong, Jeju — have zero planned construction-type rental supply for 2026. The 16-year wait itself is process weight, and its cost falls systematically on the most vulnerable.
1.2 National Pension: Risk Exposure Without Fiscal Foundation
National Assembly Budget Office, June 2026: under the current system, the National Pension Service turns to deficit in 2050 and the fund is exhausted by 2069. In 2025, the fund's domestic equity return was 82.44%, pushing the exhaustion date from 2065 to 2069. But this delay depends entirely on stock market performance. In July 2026, the KOSPI fell from 8,470 to 6,590, and the National Pension Service lost 182 trillion KRW in a single month, including 124 trillion KRW in domestic equities. A fiscal foundation dependent on market returns is not a fiscal foundation — it is a gamble.
1.3 Tax Base: Land Value Increments Are Flowing to Private Hands
Seoul's 2026 individual publicly announced land prices rose 4.9%; Yongsan-gu rose 9.2%; Myeongdong commercial land has ranked first nationwide for 23 consecutive years. In Gangnam and Yongsan, high-end apartment holding taxes exceeded their 2021 peak in 2026, with some unit types seeing year-on-year increases of over 40%. Increments are occurring, but capture is fragmented, lagged, and politically weakened.
The structural trap: increments flow to private hands (landlords, multi-home owners, equity markets), government tax base is insufficient to build public housing, waitlist households are forced into the rental market, pushing up rents, household debt, and financial fragility. Capital captures the increment, the government bears the risk, the vulnerable bear the wait.
Pillar One: Institutionalizing the Land Value Increment Capture Tax
Korea once had a land value capture instrument — the Land Excess Profit Tax, established in 1989, repealed in 1998 under IMF-crisis capital flight pressure. The current Comprehensive Real Estate Tax is a holding tax, not an increment capture tax.
- Tax object: Land value increments on non-owner-occupied multi-home holdings. Single-home owner-occupiers exempt.
- Rate: Base 70%. Speculative holding (vacant over 2 years, short-term flipping) progressive to 80%.
- Base assessment: Based on MOLIT publicly announced land prices, reassessed annually by the Korea Real Estate Board.
- Distinction from Comprehensive Real Estate Tax: the former is a "holding tax," the latter an "increment capture tax" — legally separated.
Political basis: President Lee has publicly directed holding burdens on corporate non-business land and forced sale of non-farmed agricultural land. Progressive Party Assembly Member Yoon Jong-oh has reintroduced the Land Excess Profit Tax bill with Democratic Party co-sponsorship. On April 8, 2026, the bill — together with Comprehensive Real Estate Tax and Income Tax amendments, the "Real Estate Three Laws" — was submitted to the National Assembly. No constitutional amendment required; simple majority suffices.
Pillar Two: Public-Interest Lock for Land-Lease Housing
Korea has already piloted land-lease partial-ownership housing: Jeju Samdo 2-dong, 72 units, pre-sale 2026, occupancy 2027. Land ownership permanently public; residents purchase only the building. Building pre-sale price approximately KRW 220–260 million; monthly land lease KRW 200,000–300,000.
The critical gap: the increment recovery mechanism is missing. Under current rules, the increment provided by public land is ultimately captured by the first pre-sale buyer. LH Gangnam Breeze Hill in Jagok-dong: pre-sale at KRW 220 million in 2012; same unit traded at KRW 1.38 billion in May 2026 — the first buyer captured approximately KRW 1.16 billion in increment provided by public land.
- Amendment to the Housing and Urban Fund Act: add an increment recovery clause — resale within 10 years: public repurchases at pre-sale price plus bank interest; resale after 10 years: public collects 70% of the increment.
- Democratic Party Assembly Member Jeon Hyun-hee has already introduced an amendment incorporating land acquisition and site development costs into the fund's support scope — the legislative channel is open.
Pillar Three: Linking the National Pension to Land Value Increment Revenue
National Assembly Budget Office, September 2026: if GDP 1% is injected annually as treasury support from 2026, the exhaustion date can be postponed from 2069 to 2100 (+31 years). The question is not whether it works, but where the money comes from.
- Direct 30% of land value increment capture revenue into the National Pension Fund.
- Establish an "Intergenerational Fairness Fund": co-funded by land value increment tax, carbon tax, and financial transaction tax.
- Do not change the current pension eligibility age; do not cut existing benefits.
Global unification is not achievable in the current sovereign state system. The OECD global minimum corporate tax framework has 147 jurisdictions in agreement, but the United States declared it "invalid" via executive order and obtained an exemption arrangement for US firms. Global unification, once it touches great-power interests, is torn apart by sovereign exemption.
Korea's position is more direct. In January 2026, Trump announced a tariff increase on Korean automobiles, timber, and pharmaceuticals from 15% to 25%, citing the National Assembly's failure to ratify the trade agreement. Although the 15% framework was ultimately maintained, this shows Korea's negotiating space on economic relations with the US is constrained by the security alliance and trade dependence.
Under this constraint, "external coordination" is not "demanding global unification." It is "building enough bilateral coordination that the cost of capital escape exceeds the cost of staying."
Operable Coordination Layer: Bilateral Tax Agreement Network
Korea signs Land Value Capture Coordination Agreements with willing countries — the UK, Germany, France, Brazil, India, South Africa. The core provisions are not "unified rates" but:
- Information sharing: exchange of land holding structures, beneficial ownership information, cross-border land transaction data. Korea restored up to 75% capital gains tax on multi-home owners in 2026, but without beneficial ownership information, this tax base can be pierced by shell companies.
- Home-country taxing right: land held in State A by a beneficial owner in State B — State B has taxing rights over the land value increment in State A. This follows the BEPS enforcement logic, not dependent on recipient-state cooperation.
- Exit tax mutual recognition: when capital leaves State A, State A taxes unrealized land value increments; if capital subsequently enters State B, State B recognizes the tax already paid to State A, avoiding double taxation while preventing "exit first, realize later" arbitrage.
- Effective tax rate audit mutual recognition: signatories disclose each other's effective land value capture tax rates and accept audit. If nominal rate is 70% but effective rate is 5%, the counterparty can initiate a compliance review.
Why Korea Is a Suitable Node
- 2028 G20 presidency. The current G20 troika is 2026 US, 2027 UK, 2028 Korea. Korea is in the G20 decision-making inner circle from 2026. The 2028 presidency's agenda-setting space is open.
- Domestic legislative basis already exists. The Land Excess Profit Tax bill has been submitted with Democratic Party co-sponsorship; the "Real Estate Three Laws" were submitted to the National Assembly on April 8, 2026.
- Political window exists. President Lee has made speculation control a governing priority since June 2025; the cabinet approved restoration of up to 75% capital gains tax on multi-home owners in February 2026. The president himself listed and sold his own home in 2026.
Real Constraints and Responses
- US tariff leverage. Not "confronting the US," but prioritizing agreements with countries less dependent on the US market. The UK, Germany, France, Brazil, India, South Africa have varying degrees of trade dependence — some have greater autonomy.
- Domestic political backlash. President Lee is walking a tightrope between "suppressing speculation" and "protecting real demand." External coordination cannot demand Korea move faster domestically than politically feasible; it can only require technical coordination — information sharing and audit mutual recognition — to go first.
- Housing supply policy takes priority over increment capture. The August 2026 housing supply plan targets 230,000 additional units in the capital region. External coordination must run parallel to supply policy, not replace it.
Starting Point
Not waiting for G20 consensus. Not demanding global unification. Instead: Korea, the UK, France, Germany, Brazil, India, South Africa — countries with domestic political windows, legislative bases, and real demand for land value capture — sign bilateral agreements first.
The first agreement need not cover all provisions. It can start with "information sharing + effective tax rate audit mutual recognition." These two provisions do not involve rate coordination, do not require sovereignty transfer, and require only administrative cooperation. They build transparency, and transparency is the precondition for capture.
The second step is "home-country taxing right + exit tax mutual recognition." This requires deeper coordination, but with the transparency foundation from step one, the negotiating space opens.
The 2028 G20 presidency is a window, not the only opportunity. Bilateral agreements can be signed outside the G20 framework. The G20's role is to upgrade the bilateral network into a multilateral framework, not to create the framework itself.
| Phase | Time | Task | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legislative preparation | 2027 Q1–Q3 | Draft three bills + bilateral agreement template | Draft texts |
| Assembly deliberation | 2027 Q4–2028 Q2 | Deliberation and amendment | Passed bills |
| Bilateral coordination launch | 2027 Q4–2028 Q4 | Sign information-sharing + audit agreements with willing countries | Signed agreements |
| Pilot expansion | 2028 Q3–2029 Q4 | Land-lease housing from Jeju to capital region | Pilot report |
| Nationwide rollout | 2030 Q1–2032 Q4 | Nationwide implementation of land value increment capture | Annual report |
| Risk | Response |
|---|---|
| Overlap with existing Comprehensive Real Estate Tax | Clearly distinguish "holding tax" from "increment capture tax" by tax object |
| Opposition party resistance | Split the bills; advance the land-lease housing portion first |
| Capital escape before capture takes effect | Bilateral exit tax mutual recognition + home-country taxing right |
| Short-term real estate market shock | 3-year transition period; phased implementation |
| US pressure on Korea's coordination partners | Prioritize partners with lower US market dependence |
Conclusion
This proposal is not an advocacy document. It is based on Korea's existing instruments (Comprehensive Real Estate Tax, land-lease housing, National Pension Service) and existing data (National Assembly Budget Office pension outlook, Jeju pilot, 2026 tax reform), designing an executable legislative, administrative, and coordination path.
It does not start from zero. It assembles the fragments Korea is already using into a complete system — and builds the external coordination layer that prevents capital escape from dismantling it.
Public capture of land value is the fiscal foundation of all governance delivery. Korea's reform path is to turn this sentence into executable legislation — with the precondition that willing countries establish coordination mechanisms first.