Investor That Can See The Future

Chapter 396

After finishing my schedule in California, I headed back to Korea. On the return flight, I thought about the wisdom I had seen and looked up real estate related materials.

When I got home, I parked in the basement and took the elevator up. When the door opened, Eli was standing in front of him.

“I’m here… … .”

Ellie hugged me and kissed me before I could even finish speaking. It’s really nice to have someone to greet you when you come home.

After a long kiss, Ellie looked me in the eye and asked.

“Did she do nothing?”

So she’s referring to Angelina Tinter here, right?

“of course. She ran right at the door.”

“How was America? Was it fun?”

“I was bored by myself.”

“You didn’t want to see me?”

“Of course I wanted to see you.”

“Who was the prettiest among Hollywood stars?”

“Ellie is much prettier than all the girls there combined.”

“Cheet, lie.”

Her eyes were smiling as she pouted her lips as if in a fight. That expression is so cute, this time I kissed her first.

Taek-gyu, who was watching him from the side, said.

“My friend. Can’t you see me?”

* * *

We ate dinner together at home and sat down in the living room.

Ellie said it was a celebration of my return, and she took a bottle of wine. We sat on the sofa in the living room and watched the news and drank wine.

Even while I was drinking, what I saw as Yeji kept lingering in my mind. On TV, news came out that Seoul was the 4th most expensive city for foreigners to live.

Taek-gyu asked.

“Is it really expensive for foreigners to live?”

Ellie nodded her head.

“Probably so. Actually, the price of Seoul itself is not that expensive. However, the cost of housing is second to none compared to other cities in the world.”

As a foreign financial company, Golden Gate has a high proportion of foreign employees. The company subsidizes some of the living expenses for foreign employees. So Hyunjoo’s sister and Ellie were able to stay at the hotel.

By the way, even after leaving the hotel and living together in my house, the living expenses continue to come out, and Ellie is collecting one by one, she says.

She said that the reason housing is expensive is because the house is expensive.

This time I asked.

“Is the price of a house in Seoul on the high side to foreigners?”

“It’s expensive. Still better than Hong Kong. Hong Kong doesn’t really speak. A friend who got married last year bought a studio in Tsim Sha Tsui, do you know how much it cost?”

“How much was it?”

“It was ten million. When I asked if that would make sense, he said that even in Quan Wan’s old and narrow studio, everyone pays for 5 million. Luxury homes in Victoria Peak and Repulse Bay are worth two or three billion dollars.”

Of course, the unit of the amount Ellie said is Hong Kong Dollars, not Won. HKD 10 million is about 1.5 billion won, and HKD 2 billion is about 300 billion won.

Although Hong Kong’s per capita income is higher than that of Korea, there is no big difference in salaries. So, it can be said that it is now impossible for a salaried person to be a butler in Hong Kong.

Ellie sighed as she sighed.

“It’s all because of asset parking.”

Asset parking refers to putting assets in a safe place, just like parking a car in a safe place.

Developing countries are creating a lot of wealthy people as their economic growth is fast. However, keeping the money in their own country is politically and economically insecure. If something like the IMF crisis happened in Korea in the past, more than half of the asset value could disappear in an instant due to the currency depreciation.

Because of this, some, if not all, want to move to a safer developed country, so they deposit in US banks or buy Japanese stocks.

Among them, real estate is a very good way to store large amounts of cash easily and safely. In the case of countries that allow investment immigration, permanent residence may be issued depending on the amount of real estate purchased, and the purchased real estate may be leased or used for the purpose of studying abroad for children.

When Britain announced in 1999 that Hong Kong would be returned to China, many people were concerned about the collapse of house prices. In fact, many experts predicted that China’s influence would cause the economy to collapse and property prices to fall.

However, the result was the opposite. Because Chinese capital has flowed into Hong Kong. China’s wealthiest people bought houses in Hong Kong too, causing house prices to skyrocket.

Since the return, the real estate growth rate has exceeded 400 percent!

Considering that this is an average, the places that have risen the most have risen more than 10 times.

In addition, as Chinese people flock to the country in search of work, the housing crisis has become serious. Because Hong Kong is a city-state, it was difficult to provide additional housing. So, what appeared is a chicken coop-like house in which one piece of furniture is split into several pieces, or a tiny apartment of about 3 pyeong.

“Wealthy people from emerging countries invest in real estate in developed countries, and house prices in Hong Kong, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne and London have all skyrocketed.”

Taehyung tilted his head.

“Then what about Seoul?”

“Although real estate prices are skyrocketing in Seoul, objectively, it’s not that bad compared to other cities.”

Although Korean real estate is also becoming an investment target by foreigners, investment in non-commercial residential real estate is not yet high.

There are two big factors to this. One is because of the risk factor of North Korea, and the second is… … .

“Because Korea is not an English-speaking country.”

Not to mention the US, UK, Canada and Australia, Hong Kong also uses English as its official language. If Korea had used English instead of Korean, house prices would have risen by several dozen percent.

For this reason, Korea’s residential real estate market is closer to a domestic league than a world league.

Ellie looked at me with her slightly open eyes.

“But why are you asking that? Isn’t Jinhoo not very interested in real estate?”

Warren Boat, who is called an investment genius, is not good at real estate investing. He basically believed that stocks were more profitable than real estate, and he did.

However, that is the case with Warren Boat, and most people see real estate as their most important asset and investment.

Like Warren Boat, I made very little real estate investment. When it comes to real estate owned by the company, the headquarters building is all it takes, and I have only one house to live in.

I said with a smile.

“Just. After seeing the Silicon Valley construction work, I was interested in it.”

* * *

I put the drunken Ellie to sleep in the room, and then went back down to the living room. Then I woke up Taek-gyu, who was lying on the sofa and was about to fall asleep.

“I think we need to move our headquarters.”

Taehyung closed his eyes and answered.

“Huh? suddenly?”

“Well, it’s not like we’re moving right away.”

“Where? abroad?”

“Not abroad, but domestically.”

Strictly speaking, this is not our headquarters. The corporate location is Dela Island, a tax haven, and this is just an office in Seoul.

Therefore, moving the head office does not move the corporate location, but only moving the building where it works. Nevertheless, there are many places to welcome you when we go there. Because it is so symbolic.

“why? Isn’t there a triumph?”

It’s a bit absurd even when I think about it. In fact, there is no winning streak. But convincing him is very easy.

“I saw foreknowledge.”

At that, Taek-gyu opened his eyes and jumped up his upper body.

“Really? How much is this?”

“That’s it.”

It’s been a long time, so I’m happy too.

“So what did you say?”

“I want to move the OTK Company headquarters to another location.”

“different place? where?”

Hearing my words, Taek-gyu was surprised again.

“What? Are you moving your headquarters there? What is there?”

“Nothing.”

If other people heard it, they might say I’m crazy. If I hadn’t seen Foreknowledge, I wouldn’t have even imagined it.

Taek-gyu crossed his arms and said.

“Will the OTK Company headquarters building stand alone on a vast wasteland?”

“surely. If we were to move our headquarters, wouldn’t there be a good reason?”

“What is the reason?”

I have come to the conclusion I have come to after much thought.

“What if it becomes the center of Korea’s finance and industry in the future?”

“There is nothing there.”

I remembered the sights I had seen in America.

Silicon Valley was being built all over again. The IT giants that were headquartered there burned their will to go back and willingly poured their technology and capital into it.

Silicon Valley will be reborn as a more efficient and eco-friendly, cutting-edge city than before the collapse.

“If you think about it the other way around, you can make everything new from nothing.”

* * *

After drawing up the outline of the plan to some extent, I summoned a team leader or higher and held a meeting.

I said it as if making a declaration on the spot.

“I want to create a new city.”

Everyone was surprised by my words except for Taek-gyu. Seriously, this isn’t a Sim City, and it would be ridiculous and absurd to suddenly say that you want to build a city.

After a while, Team Manager Michael Lee, who came to his senses, asked.

“If it is a new city, how big do you think it is?”

“The population is at least 500,000 to 1 million. It is not a satellite city, but a self-sufficient industrial city.”

Again everyone was at a loss for words.

“It wouldn’t be that big of a deal… … .”

Since Seoul has a population of 10 million, 500,000 people seem like nothing, but in reality, even this amount is classed as a large city.

If there are more than one million people, it is literally creating a new metropolitan city.

Sangyeop senior said.

“Impossible.”

“Why?”

“Apart from other issues, land acquisition is impossible. Even if the rumors spread that OTK Company is buying the land, land speculators from all over the country, or even all over the world, will flock to it.”

If a stock is purchased due to a dispute over management, the stock price will rise vertically from then on regardless of the fundamentals.

This is also true of real estate. When rumors spread that the land was purchased for development purposes, it would be an instant for a land worth 100,000 won to become 1 million won.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

“And when they say that they are forced to be detained after putting them all over the place, they lie down and say, ‘Kang Jinhoo is killing people. They will take away my land,” and they will fight for their lives.”

It is practically impossible to purchase all the land in one area during development. Therefore, if you usually buy 7 or 80 percent, the rest can be forcibly taken in.

The problem is that this doesn’t necessarily work out the law. There is no answer if the landowner lays down and endures saying he can’t go out.

Inevitably, they have to mobilize physical force to pull them out, and various accidents occur in the process.

Senior Sangyeop shook his head in an instant.

“The problem is that the world knows that OTK Company is rich. It is not enough to bring all the wealth in the world, rather than 1,000 trillion won, if the landowners want to give them all the money they want.”

She nodded as if everyone agreed with this statement. In fact, there has always been a break in redevelopment or housing site development.

Seo Sang-won, the team leader, said.

“It is also a problem that the surrounding residents are opposed to factories and commercial facilities. Didn’t Neotin withdraw the data center construction not too long ago?”

Neotin planned to build a data center in Yongin. However, the local residents opposed it. It is said that the health of children is at risk due to electromagnetic waves.

Neotin held public hearings several times and explained that the electromagnetic waves emitted from the data center are below the standard value and have no effect on the human body as they are lower than those emitted from smartphones and microwave ovens.

However, the residents held a large-scale protest saying there was a school nearby.

I don’t know if it was because they thought it was really dangerous or because they wanted other rewards, but when the opposition grew fierce, Neotin eventually canceled the data center construction plan.

Similar examples exist in other countries as well.

AMZ originally selected New York as its second headquarters, but it is now in a state of adrift due to residents who were concerned about soaring house prices and worsening living conditions.

Team leader Seo Sang-won said something.

“The cost of the project will increase like a snowball between land compensation and resolving protests from residents. No matter how much an OTK company it is, it is a reckless business for a single company to carry out.”

Sangyeop senior continued to speak.

“Even if the government steps in and puts public power in, it takes at least several years to develop a single housing district. In the process, even if there is an accident, public opinion will deteriorate according to public opinion. Then the giraffes will write articles about the OTK Company, trampling on the human rights of powerless landowners for their own benefit and forcibly expelling them.”

That’s perfectly correct.

I nodded.

“The biggest problem is land acquisition and opposition from residents.”

“That’s right.”

“Then, if there is no landowner and there is no opposition from the residents, wouldn’t it be possible to create a new city?”

Sangyeop senior was taken aback by my question.

“Where is the land without owners in Korea? Unless it falls from the sky or springs up from below.”

“There is only one place. The ground that springs up from below.”

“Yes?”

It sounds like a joke, but it’s surprisingly real.

I turned on the Maps app on my tablet and showed it to me.

“It’s right here.”