Obtain certified copies of the corporate registration and the registered corporate seal, and the registry extract of the concerned land and building from the District Court Registration Office
Agency: District Court Registration Office
Obtain commercial registry extracts and registry extracts of the concerned land and building
The parties, as legal entities, must prepare corporate registry extracts, corporate seal card and registry extracts of the concerned land and building.
There are three methods to obtain the purchasing corporation’s registration certificates on the land and the building to collect the real estate information:
- By visiting the District Court Registration Office in person and obtaining such documents from a registration officer (cost: KRW 1,200 each). The District Registration Officer issues copies of the corporate registration, real property registration, etc.;
- By using an unattended machine (cost: KRW 1,000 each); and
- By obtaining online via website(www.iros.go.kr) (cost: KRW 1,000 each)
Obtain the certificate of the registered corporate seal card
- Visiting the District Court Registration Office in person and getting the document from an officer (cost: KRW 1,200); and
- Using an unattended machine (cost: KRW 1,000 each)
All registry extracts and the certificate should be issued within three months before the registration of the titles will happen.
Time and cost: Less than one day (online), KRW 4,000
- KRW 1,000 for corporate registry extracts of the Party (online)
- KRW 1,000 for registered corporate seal of the Party (unattended machine)
- KRW 1,000 for registry extract of the concerned land
- KRW 1,000 for registry extract of the concerned building)
Obtain copies of the Land Cadastre Certificate and the Building Management Certificate
Agency: The jurisdictional district office (e.g. City Hall, Gu-Office, Gun-Office)
Governmental offices of various levels issue those copies (e.g. the City Hall, Gu-Office similar to “borough office” or Gun-Office similar to “district office”) and there are three ways to obtain each copy of certificates above:
- Visiting the City Hall, Gu-Office or Gun-Office and getting through an officer (cost: KRW 500 each);
- Using an unattended machine placed in a governmental district (cost: KRW 300 each); and
- Obtaining via the website (https://www.gov.kr) of the Korean government (free of charge).
(Land and Building ledger: http://https://www.gov.kr or http://www.minwon.go.kr)
The Integrated Certificate can be issued online at https://seereal.lh.or.kr (cost: certificate of all items KRW 1000, certificates of partial items KRW 800) or in person at the Jurisdictional District Office (cost: KRW 1500).
Time and cost: Less than one day (online); One copy of the Land Cadastre Certificate & the Building Management Certificate could be requested online and has not cost. It is also possible to obtain the Land Cadastre & the Building Management at the Jurisdictional District Office (cost: KRW 1000 and KRW 1500).
From January 18, 2014, the Integrated Certificate of Real Estate that includes both certificates for the Land Cadastre and the Building Management is also available. The Integrated Certificate can be issued online at https://seereal.lh.or.kr (cost: Certificate of all items KRW 1000, Certificates of partial items KRW 800) or in person at the Jurisdictional District Office (cost: KRW 1500).
Prepare the sale agreement and affix the stamp duty
Agency: District government office, Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, post offices and commercial banks
Preparing sale agreement: Although it is not mandatory to use a real estate agent, most people use agents or occasionally lawyers. Both parties that commissioned the brokerage pays a commission fee to the real estate agent. The brokerage client and the real estate agent decided the amount by agreement. The lawyers charge the commission fee hourly.
Affixing Stamp duty: The purchasing corporation should purchase National Revenue Stamp. Due to the amendment of the Stamp Tax Act enforced as of January 1, 2015, only the electronic form of NRS is permissible. Parties can purchase the electronic form of NRS via the website (www.e-revenuestamp.or.kr) or from banks and post offices, paying the same amount of price as aforementioned.
Time and cost: 1 day, KRW 8,973,039.29 (“National Revenue Stamp (for stamp duty) + Real estate agent fee (the parties and the agent usually agree for same or less than 0.9% of the sale price)
* Note: Stamp duty (in this case, KRW 350,000)
Property value (KRW million) NRS (KRW)
- Over 10, less than or equal to 30: 20,000
- Over 30, less than or equal to 50: 40,000
- Over 50, less than or equal to 100: 70,000
- Over 100, less than or equal to 1,000: 150,000
- Over 1,000: 350,000
Report the real transaction price
Agency: District government office
There is a system of reporting ‘real transaction price’ in Korea. The parties that agree to the sale of the real property should report real transaction price to the Tax Department of jurisdictional district office (usually to Gu-Office, in case of there’s no Gu: to City Hall, etc.) within 60 days after signing the sale agreement. This procedure is required to prevent tax evasion.
Both seller and buyer or real estate agents are on duty of reporting the sale price, which can be performed via the website (http://rtms.molit.go.kr/) of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport.
After reporting the price of the sale, the Office of the Tax Department issues “the real transaction price report.
“The real transaction report” includes:
- The identification of both parties;
- Signing date, intermediate payment date, and remainder payment date;
- The location, parcel number and land category of an agreed real estate;
- The type of real estate and the area of an agreed real estate; and
- The real price of a transaction.
With this report, the District Tax Office will calculate the payment of taxes as below (‘real transaction price’ of the report can also be the ‘purchase price’).
Time and cost: Less than one day (online), no charge
Buyer pays taxes online
Agency: Tax department of jurisdictional district office
The buyer pays all required taxes (specified below) online at etax.seoul.co.kr.
The tax amount due for the property with a value of about KRW 1.68 billion located in Seoul is as follow:
- Acquisition Tax: 4% of the purchase price
- Education Tax: 0.4% of the purchase price
- Agricultural and Fisheries Tax: 0.2% of the purchase price
Time and cost: Less than one day (online), KRW 79,331,961.49
- Acquisition Tax: 4% of the purchase price
- Education Tax: 0.4% of the purchase price
- Agricultural and Fisheries Tax: 0.2% of the purchase price
The buyer buys Housing Bonds
Agency: Commercial banks
The buyer should buy ‘national housing bonds (“Bonds”) at commercial banks in Korea, write the number of the Bonds at the application form for the registration, and submit it to the District Courts Registration Office at the moment of applying for the registration of the title. Five commercial banks handle national housing bonds, which are: Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, Kookmin Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, and Nonghyup.
Value of Bonds that need to be purchased by the buyer, in case of real property located in Seoul, based on the “standard market price.”
- Land:
- 2.5% (from KRW 5M ~ less than KRW 50M)
- 4% (from KRW 50M ~ less than KRW 100M)
- 5% (from KRW 100M)
- Real property other than land and house:
- 1% (from KRW 10M ~ less than KRW 130M)
- 1.6% (from KRW 130M ~ less than KRW 250M)
- 2% (from KRW 250M)
The Bonds have a maturity of 5 years. After that, the redemption is with interests. The buyer, however, can sell the Bonds shortly after purchasing them at the update discounting rate published in the websites of commercial banks.
In practice, however, buyer buys the Bonds at the bank and resells the Bonds immediately at a loss of above discount rate. The bank will issue the receipt with the Bonds number to the buyer after receiving the discount fees. The buyer needs the receipt with the Bonds number for applying for the registration of the titles.
(Cost of Procedure 6 is not included in the calculation of total cost).
Time and cost: Less than one day (online)
- If the location of the warehouse is in Seoul, Inchon, Daejeon, Gwangju, Busan, Ulsan or Daegu: 5% of the standard market price of the land + 2% of the standard market price of the building.
- In case the location of the warehouse is other than the above seven cities mentioned: 4.5% of the standard market price of the land + 1.8% of the standard market price of the building.
Both are not included in the calculation of total cost.
Buyer applies for the registration of the titles
Agency: District Court Registration Office
Parties file the application form for registration of the title at the District Court Registration Office within the jurisdiction. The District Court Registration Office is in charge of registering the title under the name of the new owner. Fee for the application is KRW 15,000 per each lot in case of submitting the application form (written by hands) with other necessary documents to the registration officer. In case of applying using the ‘e-form’ (online and printed) with other documents required to the registration officer, the fee is KRW 13,000. If the parties apply online (www.iros.go.kr), the fee is KRW 10,000, but the authentication certificate for internet banking is necessary for using the online application.
Documents to be submitted for the registration of the title transfer include:
- In general, certificate copies of the corporate registration and the authentication certificate of a seal of a vendor corporation’s representative are required;
- Copies of the Land Cadastre Certificate & the Building Management Certificate;
- A certificate of reporting real transaction price;
- Original copy of the executed sale agreement on which NRS should be affixed;
- property tax clearance;
- The receipt of purchase of Housing Bonds;
- A registration certificate which is in possession of the seller;
- A Power of Attorney
Time and cost: 2 days, KRW 15,000
Cost per real property (land + building) for court registry stamp:
- In person: KW 15,000
- Electronic standard form application: KW 13,000
- Electronic application: KW 10,000
