Korean Real Estate Agent Fee Calculator

This calculator works out the legal ceiling on the commission paid to a licensed real estate agent in Korea, known colloquially as 복비, and the amount you will actually pay. The rate band depends on whether the deal is a sale or a lease, whether the property is a home, an officetel or a commercial unit, and how much money is involved; some bands also carry a cash cap on top of the rate. Monthly-rent leases use a separate formula to convert deposit and rent into one transaction value, which is where hand calculations usually go wrong.

The "legal ceiling" is the most the agent may charge on that deal. Enter the rate you agreed and the tool shows what you will pay and flags whether it exceeds the ceiling. Switch on VAT to add the 10% that applies when the agent is a general VAT payer.

Use it before signing, to check that the commission the agent quoted is within the ceiling. The rate table is public, but once bands, caps and the rent conversion stack up it is hard to do in your head at the table. Arriving with the number changes where the negotiation starts.

It is also useful after the fact. Any commission above the ceiling is void as to the excess and can be reclaimed, so entering the figure from your receipt shows at once how much was overcharged. Landlord and tenant each pay their own agent, so each side calculates its own share separately.

The rules are in 공인중개사법 제32조 and 같은 법 시행규칙 제20조. For homes, each province or city sets the rate by ordinance within the range the regulation allows; this calculator uses 서울특별시 조례 별표1 as its default. For home sales the ceiling is 0.6% with a ₩0.25 million cap under ₩50 million, 0.5% with a ₩0.8 million cap under ₩200 million, 0.4% under ₩900 million, 0.5% under ₩1200 million, 0.6% under ₩1500 million and 0.7% above that. For leases it starts at 0.5% with a ₩0.2 million cap under ₩50 million, then 0.4% with a ₩0.3 million cap under ₩100 million, then 0.3% under ₩600 million, and rises again as the value climbs.

Officetels and non-residential property are set directly by the regulation and are the same nationwide. An officetel of 85㎡ or less with its own kitchen, toilet and bathing facilities takes 0.5% on a sale and 0.4% on a lease; any other officetel, and shops and land, are negotiated within 0.9% whatever the type of deal.

The steps run like this. For a sale the transaction value is the price. For a lease it is the deposit plus 100 times the monthly rent, and if that comes to less than ₩50 million it is recalculated with 70 times the rent instead. The value picks the band, the rate is applied, and if the band has a cap the smaller of the two is the ceiling. The same cap applies to the figure at your agreed rate. Finally, 10% VAT is added if the agent is a general VAT payer.

Take the default on screen, a home sold for ₩1 billion. That falls in the band from ₩900 million to under ₩1200 million, so the ceiling rate is 0.5% with no cap. The ceiling is ₩5 million, and at an agreed rate of 0.5% you pay exactly that. Negotiate down to 0.4% and it becomes ₩4 million; if the agent is a general VAT payer, ₩400,000 of VAT brings it to ₩4.4 million.

For monthly rent the conversion comes first. A ₩30 million deposit with ₩500,000 rent gives ₩30 million plus ₩50 million, or ₩80 million, which is at least ₩50 million and so stands. In the band under ₩100 million the 0.4% rate gives ₩320,000, but the band's ₩0.3 million cap brings the ceiling down to ₩300,000. A ₩10 million deposit with ₩300,000 rent gives ₩40 million at 100 times, which is under ₩50 million, so it is recalculated at 70 times and the transaction value becomes ₩31 million.

The most common mistake is treating the rate as a fixed price. The law sets a ceiling within which the fee is negotiated, and in the high-value bands with no cap a small cut in the rate makes a big difference in won. The next is forgetting the 70-times fallback in the rent conversion. Small monthly-rent leases get a lower transaction value because of it, and using 100 times alone means paying more than you owe.

Assuming every officetel gets the low rate is another error. Only units of 85㎡ or less with all three residential facilities take 0.5% and 0.4%; if any facility is missing the rate is 0.9%, the same as a shop. And if you are asked for a separate fee for being shown a property when no contract was concluded, there is no basis for it. An agent may only collect commission on a concluded contract and actual outlays such as the cost of issuing certificates.