<Anchor>
The number of
uninhabited vacant houses is increasing. It is said that there are more than 150.1 million households in the country, and nearby residents are worried because this can be used for crime and there is also a risk of accidents.

Reporter Park Byung-il covered the scene.

<Reporter>
A residential area in
Incheon.

From the outside, it looks like an ordinary residential area, but when you step inside just one block, it's completely different.

[Jeonghwa/Resident: I don't live at all. (Is this also an empty house?) Nene. I don't live with them all.]

Some houses crumble at the slightest touch, and some are so shattered that it's hard to recognize their original shape.

[Jeonghwa/Resident: (When did it collapse?): It's been a while already, the owner hasn't shown up.]

One resident complains when he sees the reporter.

[Kim Chun-ja/Resident: I want you to tear this down. I'm afraid it's going to collapse every time I pass by. My son almost died. If I had taken one less step, one thing like this would have dripped....]

All the houses are stuck together, and if one collapses, the house next door is also in danger.

[Lee Chun-jin/Resident: This is the house, if it collapses, it will all spill over here, so you can't sleep this way, you can't sleep this way.]

An old residential area in Yeongdong, Busan.

It was once a very prosperous place, but with the decline of the shipbuilding industry, only old people, the sea, and empty houses remain.

[Kim Jung-hwan/Resident: (Oh, ah, no, nong, like this...,) These days, I throw away all the spoons and throw them all away.]

About 4/10 of all households in the neighborhood are vacant.

[Kim Jung-hwan/Resident: That's the order in which the houses become vacant, the young friends leave, the elderly are there, and when the elderly go to the hospital, they are all empty, so the living arrangements remain as they are.]

Local governments are carrying out a project to buy and regenerate vacant houses, but some vacant houses are said to be not easy to buy.

[I don't think I liked the amount of compensation, the owner lives outside, so I don't care about this situation. Now, for the people who live here, this is almost terrorism. Terrorism....]

Over the past 1 years, the number of vacant houses nationwide has doubled, and the number of vacant houses that are more than one year old, excluding temporary vacant houses such as moving or unsold, has increased by more than 10,10 in <> years.

Therefore, there are arguments that a vacant house tax should be introduced like in the UK and Japan, but it is not easy because there is a lot of controversy about who should be taxed.

[Kim Jin-yu, Professor, Department of Urban Transportation Engineering, Gyeonggi University: So that vacant houses can be utilized through stronger incentives, such as how landlords can remodel and rent vacant houses, or exempt them from paying property taxes altogether....]

It is pointed out that preemptive measures are urgently needed to prevent the growing problem of vacant houses from becoming a bigger disaster in the future.

(VJ: Yoon Taek)