A high-end apartment unit owned by Kim Hee Won, the older sister of actress Kim Tae Hee and former head of Kim Tae Hee’s agency, was confirmed to have been temporarily seized by the National Health Insurance Service due to unpaid health insurance premiums before the measure was later lifted.
The property in question is a luxury apartment located in Seongdong District, Seoul. Based on past transaction prices and current market conditions, its estimated value is believed to be at least in the 3 billion KRW (about 2.1 million USD) range.
Kim Hee Won previously served as the CEO of Lua Entertainment, the agency where Kim Tae Hee was signed for about nine years. In 2019, the company changed its name to Lua Asset and continues operations under that title. According to reporting by Ilyo News, the Seongdong branch of the National Health Insurance Service seized one unit of Morning Ville Hannam, an apartment in Oksu-dong, Seongdong District, owned by Kim Hee Won, on December 29 of last year. The seizure was later lifted on January 19. The agency has the authority to seize personal real estate in cases of unpaid health insurance premiums.
The apartment building was completed in 2000. The unit owned by Kim measures 208.14 ㎡. Kim Tae Hee originally purchased the unit in 2006 for 980 million KRW (about 685,000 USD), later gifting it to her sister in 2016. Kim Hee Won has retained ownership since.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s real transaction price disclosure system, a unit of the same size on the 6th floor sold for 2.5 billion KRW (about 1.75 million USD) in June 2022. Meanwhile, a lease listing for another unit of the same size on the 8th floor is currently posted with an asking price of 3 billion KRW (about 2.1 million USD) on Naver Real Estate.
Kim Tae Hee’s current agency, StoryJ Company, told Ilyo News, “Her older sister lives in the United States and only occasionally enters Korea, so it seems this happened because she was unaware of the unpaid health insurance premiums.”
Separately, Lua Asset, led by Kim Hee Won, and Kim Tae Hee were previously subject to an irregular special tax audit by the Seoul Regional Tax Office in 2021 and were assessed additional taxes amounting to several hundred million KRW (tens of thousands of USD). In a statement released in March 2023, Kim Tae Hee’s agency explained, “At the time Kim Tae Hee’s management contract with her former agency (Lua Entertainment) expired, there was a delay in the payment of advertising model fees that the client side was responsible for. A difference in interpretation with the tax authorities arose over whether the revenue should be considered the actress’s personal income rather than that of the former agency corporation, and additional taxes related to that matter were subsequently paid.”
Kim Tae Hee had been signed under Lua Entertainment, headed by her sister, for approximately nine years starting in January 2010. She moved to a new agency, BS Company, in August 2018. In August 2019, Kim Hee Won changed the company name to Lua Asset, removed “entertainment management” from its business purposes, and added “overseas real estate investment and development.”
Lua Asset’s corporate address is currently registered at the Hannam The Hill apartment in Hannam-dong, Yongsan District, Seoul, which Kim Tae Hee purchased in August 2018 for about 4.2 billion KRW (about 2.9 million USD). The same unit is also registered as the address of J Angel Corporation, a company where Kim Tae Hee is listed as CEO.
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