Economy

Only about 7 per cent of Seoul homes were within reach of a median-income family in 2025. The tax plan may change which owners sell and how much they pay, while access to the capital continues to depend heavily on wealth accumulated before the purchase.

Mortgage restrictions can reduce bank lending without removing the money supporting expensive homes. Property gains, jeonse deposits, family capital, public guarantees and private credit increasingly determine who can still buy—and where the risk ultimately resides.

South Korea is earning extraordinary income from the hardware behind the AI boom. Following the money through corporate profits, household portfolios, property, debt and the workplace reveals why that success has yet to produce broad-based prosperity.

The Bank of Korea raised rates as exports and investment strengthened nationally. In Busan, services were growing, but manufacturing, construction orders and several forms of employment were moving in the opposite direction.

Korea is earning heavily from the AI boom, but the gains do not stop at semiconductor profits. They are moving into wages, housing, work schedules, hiring, industrial knowledge and energy infrastructure—at very different speeds and under very different rules.

Semiconductor exports are powering South Korea’s recovery, but the gains are concentrated in chipmakers, markets and production regions. Busan’s test is whether the boom can move into port logistics, factory productivity and local technical jobs.

Samsung and SK hynix have turned AI memory into a national windfall. The harder question is whether the gains will flow through wages, suppliers, public budgets and productivity — or be captured by stocks, property and Seoul-centered opportunity.

South Korea is already benefiting from the global AI infrastructure boom through semiconductors, HBM and chipmaker valuations. Yet the income created by that boom still has to travel through wages, suppliers, small businesses and household balance sheets before it becomes broad economic resilience.

South Korea’s won remains weak despite large current-account surpluses and strong semiconductor exports. The pressure now runs through overseas investment, oil costs, U.S. yields, foreign equity selling and the domestic cost of rate defense.

South Korea’s AI-driven chip boom has restored strength to exports and markets, but the recovery is moving through narrow channels. Households are losing financial room, small businesses are facing thinner margins, and a weak won is keeping imported inflation inside the domestic economy.

South Korea’s apartment crisis is not just about prices or taxes. In Seoul and the capital region, apartments have become a route to opportunity, security and mobility. Breaking the cycle will require more than tax and mortgage rules: it demands a new housing settlement for future cities.

Polling shows deep public anxiety over Busan’s economy. But the deeper problem is structural: an older population, weaker industrial momentum and a local market that no longer supports the city in the way it once did.