Real Estate — A Real Junk Stock
A real junk stock.
The real estate market.
"So I just need to sign here?"
"Would there be any issue~? I'll make sure to pass this along to the seller myself."
Gangnam had been in an uproar lately.
Home prices that had done nothing but fall were finally lifting their heads.
Even toxic inventory like Eunma Apartment is moving fine.
A little real estate office in Daechi-dong.
Its owner, Kim Isu, was in high spirits.
Until just a little while ago, the place had been dead enough to catch flies.
"Thank you, sucker!"
Suddenly the doorway was packed with customers.
People were even snatching up the headache listings, of all things.
Ding-a-ling♪
And the reason for it—
At first, it had been bewildering.
Normally this kind of thing only ever blew up inside online communities.
"Everybody's going crazy trying to buy real estate these days!"
"But the economy's supposed to be that bad…"
"Listen, buddy, how long are you gonna live all bottled up like that?"
The rumor was circulating among ordinary people now, too.
Kim Isu poured out a passionate lecture to his old friend Mr. Park, who'd dropped by for the first time in ages.
Well, I was completely in the dark myself until I heard about it.
Gangnam real estate.
It was the hottest asset in the entire Republic of Korea.
It hit people far harder than the KOSPI or KOSDAQ ever could.
Because it was stable.
Because it only ever went up.
There was a reason people talked about the myth of invincible real estate.
"The Officially Assessed Land Price, the punitive capital gains tax, the reconstruction regulations—every last one of them was a policy that pushed home prices higher."
"And who the hell's saying that?"
"There's this expert fellow who's famous these days—goes by Sonik-jwa. You listen to that man and rice cakes fall into your lap while you're sleeping!"
The economy was bad.
Home prices were too expensive!
Newspapers and news broadcasts could shout about it all day long—
But real estate kept rising, and there turned out to be reasons for every bit of it.
Working in the business, he felt it more keenly than most.
Unlike the noise the public was making, the actual market had never been at its worst.
In stock terms, it was bargain hunting.
The moment a desperate sale listing appeared, someone snapped it up like a ghost.
Only now did he understand why.
"Sonik-jwa, my foot! How great can some young punk possibly be?"
"He's great enough to make money, that's how."
"The President says he's going to rein in real estate, and some nobody thinks he knows better?"
"That's exactly why you're still a non-homeowner with your sixtieth birthday right around the corner!"
"……"
Mr. Park held a very different view from Kim Isu.
As a friend, he couldn't help feeling a little wounded.
What did the President ever do wrong…
He had never bought a home.
It wasn't that he lacked the money.
If he'd set his mind to it, he could have raised the funds easily enough.
"I heard it from an expert myself, you know."
"An expert? Who?"
"Well, uh… there's this person! Must be my age catching up with me—I can't quite remember the name~"
"Don't start that already."
The belief that he could buy cheaper later.
He had put absolute faith in a post he'd seen on a community board.
CW6974 of DentureNation said so clearly.
Real estate was about to crash!
The government had rolled up its sleeves to crush home prices!
Every user on the board thought the same thing.
Some even offered professional-sounding explanations.
[Home Price Growth Rate by Country graph.jpg]
Korea sits at 0.3% — extremely low!
1st place Hong Kong: 11.8%
Europe average: 5%
United States: 3.9%
And Japan rose 1.5%
CW6974.
He had risen as the hero of DentureNation by leading the Don't-Buy-Real-Estate movement.
He used professional terminology.
He brought all kinds of supporting data.
Trusting him was only natural.
And there really were a lot of people selling their homes.
Countless people joined the movement.
They were captivated by the grounds, the justifications, and the noble cause he laid out.
Apartment sale certification posts poured in.
At the peak, they filled an entire page every single day.
"This business isn't that easy, buddy."
"Alright, alright."
"People wanting to buy real estate are lined up even now, you hear me?"
"I said I got it!"
These days the posts had thinned out.
People had started to realize the Don't-Buy-Real-Estate movement wasn't producing much in the way of results.
Still, it can't have had zero effect.
He'd said it was only a matter of time.
CW6974 had to be far more of an expert than that Sonik-jwa character who badmouthed the President.
Mr. Park believed it.
No—he had no choice but to believe it.
He didn't want to admit he'd already missed the chance to buy at the bottom.
Public opinion.
DentureNation — The Awakened Older Generation That Won't Be Boxed In
There was no way the board could stay unshaken.
Anyone with eyes could see that real estate had been rising lately.
Feeling a bit calmer now
The users who had joined the Don't-Buy-Real-Estate movement.
They were beginning to realize something had gone wrong.
Community rules simply kept them from saying it out loud.
But mouths couldn't stay shut forever.
You led the Don't-Buy-Real-Estate movement, correct?
The evidence you cited was statistics claiming Korean home prices were well under control
I'd like to know if you still think that
And I'd also like to know how you can claim prices only rose 0.3% when every apartment around me has jumped at least 20%
It was covering your eyes and yelling "aung."
Insisting prices hadn't risen when they clearly had was a hard sell.
The moment one or two people brought it up, the fire spread in an instant.
A wave of discontent was bound to erupt—
[OECD Major Cities Home Price Growth Rate.jpg]
Of course they would
It's the capital of a nation
But numbers are always relative
According to OECD statistics, London rose over 20%, Shanghai over 30%
Meanwhile Seoul… 10%
All thanks to our government declaring war on speculation
Yes, we are at war
And if anyone turns their guns on their own side during a war, that person is the enemy
Putting out that fire was not difficult.
Just as expected, the blaze was extinguished with ease.
People are creatures who believe what they want to believe, after all.
A biased site.
Especially one tangled up with politics—rational conversation simply didn't work there.
So you just played to it.
You fed them the stories that suited their tastes.
"What the hell are you doing, you psycho!"
"Agitation."
"You're so damn shameless about it."
Sora stared at him with a look of pure disbelief.
She'd come over saying she'd made something delicious.
The delicious thing is talking.
Tteokbokki.
What women called delicious food.
It was either that or an omakase course ten times more expensive.
"Is it okay for you to do that while you're buying, sunbae?"
"What's wrong with it?"
"What's wrong with it—you don't even know why I'm aski— gulp!"
"Swallow first, then talk."
She'd brought it over saying they should eat together.
Having moved in right next door, they ended up sharing food fairly often.
Chew. Chew.
She had plenty of stress to deal with.
She was craving something spicy!
She kept shoveling it down while spouting nonsense.
"It's a bad thing, though."
"Why is this a bad thing?"
"Here comes another round of bizarre bullshit."
She'd figured it out mid-chew.
Whether she'd built up a tolerance or not, she didn't throw a full tantrum over it.
It could look bad, sure.
But you had to shift the perspective a little.
Same as when he'd conceived the poverty business.
"I get to purchase real estate at a discount."
"Obviously that's the goal."
"And those people get peace of mind."
"?"
Reality wasn't going to change either way.
As long as the government was dead set on it, real estate was guaranteed to rise.
How sad for them.
The President will rein in home prices for us!
—as far as his believing supporters were concerned.
He'd simply soothed their grief.
KoreaPride TV.
It was also the reason videos that looked utterly pointless and meaningless racked up such massive views.
"Even a little searching would tell you the content is complete nonsense."
"They just don't do that."
"Why not?"
"Same reason as in The Matrix."
Better to take the blue pill than swallow the red one and suffer.
This was the real-world version of that.
The world had gone so mad that—
Extreme ideological polarization.
It was flaring up in America, in Korea—no, across the entire globe.
It was a topic no market participant could ignore.
An investor simply needed to feed well on their blind money.
"I can't even talk…"
"Your cheeks are bulging so hard no words can get out."
"Gulp!"
She understood the logic.
She just couldn't put it to use herself yet.
Mentally, she was still immature.
Even so, that same Sora had grown a little.
She'd developed her own views on stocks, and her stream viewership had climbed considerably.
"That's why I'm eating tteokbokki…"
"You've got no shortage of excuses."
"I'm being serious!"
And with that growth came its own set of problems.
As hot as the real estate market was running, the KOSPI was inevitably left out in the cold.