Residents of Gangnam-gu are reeling under soaring property taxes as home prices in the district have surged sharply.
The strain is showing in a dramatic rise in applications to pay property tax in installments.
Gangnam-gu, led by District Mayor Kim Hyeon-gi, said installment payment applications this year more than doubled from a year earlier, with 2,925 requests filed as of late July — a 111.9% increase from 1,380 applications in the same period last year.
The total amount covered by installment applications also rose to 9.8 billion won ($6.8 million), up 1.9 billion won from 7.9 billion won last year.
The district attributed the surge to a 25.8% jump in apartment prices this year compared with a year earlier, which pushed the average housing property tax up 16.3% and significantly increased the tax burden on residents.
In response, the district strengthened advance guidance and application support to help taxpayers check their bills early and plan payments around their finances. Starting in June, Gangnam-gu introduced several services through its website — including a home property tax preview tool, a dedicated consultation counter and a smartphone QR code application option — to make the installment payment system more accessible.
The home property tax preview tool was developed in-house by district staff. Residents can enter the name of an apartment building in Gangnam-gu along with the unit number to check the publicly assessed price and estimated property tax. The tool is tailored to the district's high-tax environment, providing information on whether a property qualifies for installment payment and the estimated amount due at each installment. Its key distinction is allowing residents to plan payments before receiving an official tax bill. The tool has logged 8,413 cumulative uses.
The district also sent mobile notifications to taxpayers whose combined property tax and urban area levy exceeded 5 million won, informing them of the installment payment option. A walk-in consultation counter that opened July 10 guided more than 200 people through the application process and payment schedule. An additional 230 applications were submitted via the smartphone QR code service.
Applications for a tax deferral program — which allows taxpayers to postpone payment until a property is sold, gifted or inherited — also rose 69% from a year earlier to 44 cases, driven by active outreach through the dedicated consultation counter.
The district also streamlined its document delivery process by going digital. An automated email system developed in-house converts property tax bills and assessment statements into electronic documents and sends them automatically when a staff member issues a print command from the work program, eliminating the need to save files separately and attach them to emails. The change has reduced waiting times for residents and cut down on repetitive administrative work.
Going forward, the district plans to improve the accuracy and usability of the home property tax preview tool and expand the automated email system to cover other tax notices and recurring document delivery tasks.
"We have strengthened advance guidance and installment payment support to ease the property tax burden," District Mayor Kim said. "We will continue to expand taxpayer-friendly policies that residents can feel in their daily lives."
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