Distribution Impact of Rent Control on Seoul Market Rents during the COVID-19

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 in the early 2020, Korea has attempted to reinforce the existing rent controls to help the lowincome households. From July 2000, the tenants' right of lease renewal came into effect, as a policy tool to enforce the upper bound percentage of rent increases within Korea. Purpose: This study aims to examine the impact of rent control on the uncontrolled rents in Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA). Research design, data and methodology: The study regresses the monthly panel data from 58 municipalities in SMA from January 2020 to March 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: The data indicates that the policy had the effect of lowering rents for a period of two months, and subsequently monetary policy including quantitative easing and low interest rates, coupled with asset market bubbles lead to rent increases. During the sample data period, the quantity of money supply increased by 12.6% and CPI rose by 3.0%, these phenomena collectively increased the rents by up to 14.7%. Conclusions: The results of the present study support the findings of earlier studies in part: namely, that rent control without the government's steps to stabilize the property price may have an undesirable effect on rental tenants.