Singer and musical actress Ock Joo-hyun, who recently purchased Hannam The Hill for 19 billion won. Kyunghyang Shinmun file photo

Singer and musical actress Ock Joo-hyun has chosen Hannam The Hill as the first home she owns.

According to this newspaper’s reporting on the 11th, musical actress Ock Joo-hyun purchased an apartment at Hannam The Hill in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, for 19 billion won. In the process, a mortgage was registered with a maximum debt amount of 12.3 billion won.

The unit she bought is a 1·2-floor duplex with an exclusive area of about 332㎡, acquired from Heo Hee-soo, president of SPC Group. After signing the contract in May last year, the transaction was completed recently with the payment of the balance.

He purchased the unit in September 2015 for 6.9 billion won, realizing a capital gain of 12.1 billion won in about ten years. The 19 billion won paid by Ock Joo-hyun is the highest price on record for an actual transaction at Hannam The Hill.

Hannam The Hill is home to entertainment figures such as Jin of BTS, actor So Ji-sub, the couple Chu Ja-hyun·Yu Xiaoguang, singer Lee Seung-chul, broadcaster Lee Young-ja, and professional gamer Doinb. In November last year, actor Kim Tae-hee sold for 12.7 billion won after seven years of ownership, reaping a capital gain of 8.5 billion won.

The core of the complex’s siting is baesanimsu. Namsan lies to the north, Maebongsan embraces the east, and just to the south the Han River flows, with UN Village right in front.

A real estate industry official explained, “It is a textbook baesanimsu location that backs onto Namsan and looks out over the Han River, and it is a rare spot that links both downtown Seoul and Gangnam in under 20 minutes.”

The floor area ratio is about 120%, which is low among Seoul’s luxury residential areas, and the entire complex is designed as a high-elevation, closed site that makes external access structurally difficult. Dedicated security and a visitor vehicle control system operate 24 hours a day.

In 2018, actual transaction prices for duplex units of around 100 pyeong were in the 6.8~7.3 billion won range; after Jin of BTS’s 17.5 billion won deal last March, this 19 billion won transaction set a new all-time high. That amounts to an increase of about 2.8 times in seven years.

Noh Jong-eon, Ock Joo-hyun’s legal representative and an attorney at Law Firm Jonjae, said, “This home purchase was carried out lawfully and transparently, with not the slightest discrepancy in the payment of related taxes and administrative procedures,” adding, “It is deeply meaningful as the ‘first home of her life’ prepared after long years of activity in the entertainment industry.”

He added, “As it is a valuable outcome achieved through sincere hard work, we respectfully ask that it be viewed with warm, affectionate eyes, without misunderstandings or unfounded speculation contrary to the facts.”