IU And Lee Jong Suk’s Combined Wealth In Real Estate Leaves Netizens In Awe
IU and Lee Jong Suk made the new year a very happy occasion for fans when they confirmed their dating news. Since their individual public confessions of love for each other, their trajectory from being co-MCs to friends to lovers has become a heavily discussed topic on the internet. While most people are busy swooning over their fanfiction-like love story, the combined wealth of the two stars has left some jaws hanging.
According to reports, both IU and Lee Jong Suk are enthusiastic about real-estate investments, thanks to which their combined fortunes, if they eventually get married, would stand at over ₩100 billion KRW (about $78.7 million USD)! Let’s take a look at the individual breakdown:
IU
According to South China Morning Post, IU was the richest female K-Pop star in 2021, with an estimated wealth of ₩51.2 billion KRW (about $40.3 million USD). Apart from her income as an artist, IU has made some very successful real-estate investments that have helped in buffing up her net worth. She owns a luxury villa in Cheongdam-dong worth ₩13.0 billion KRW (about $10.2 million USD). She also bought a studio in Gyeonggi-do for ₩4.60 billion KRW (about $3.62 million USD). The purchase of the villa had become a hot topic when it was revealed that IU bought it entirely in cash without any sort of loan involved.
IU’s second house Yangpyeong-gun in Gyeonggi-do, was also bought at the price of ₩2.20 billion KRW (about $1.73 million USD), with an additional ₩800 million KRW (about $629,000 USD) spent on purchasing the adjacent land. Though all her investments are probably not in public knowledge, the ones that are known add up to ₩20.0 billion KRW (about $15.7 million USD) already.
Lee Jong Suk
Lee Jong Suk is also known to be a real-estate enthusiast. Apart from being one of the top actors in the Korean entertainment industry, investing in properties has helped increase his net worth significantly. In 2016, he purchased a house in Sinsa-dong, Seoul, and rebuilt it into a two-story cafe. The property then sold for ₩5.95 billion KRW (about $4.68 million USD) in 2020, earning him a profit of ₩2.05 billion KRW (about $1.61 million USD).
He owns a luxury villa at La Terrasse Hannam in Hannam-dong that he bought in 2015 for ₩4.30 billion KRW (about $3.38 million USD). He lived there for six years before moving into a house in Nine One Hannam, which was bought for ₩7.30 billion KRW (about $5.74 million USD). It is reported that he bought the place all in cash as well. The market price of his La Terrasse house has now gone up to an estimated ₩12.0 billion KRW (about $9.44 million USD).
Netizens are awed by the extent of the couple’s wealth, to say the least. While some complained that celebrities get paid unnecessarily high, others praised their money-skills and even said that IU would have been richer had she not been so generous with donations.
- “This is the type of news that makes you feel 100000% worse for yourself during these bad times… what’s the point ㅠㅠ”
- “I honestly don’t understand why celebrities need to be able to make this kind of money.. they get paid hundreds of millions for one CF, one drama episode while being treated like kings and queens on the sets. There are staff members doing the same work for a percent of the pay, probably suffering even more than them.”
- “IU donation angel!”
- “If it’s IU, shouldn’t it be more than 500 billion won??? Did she donate a lot? Why is the property in this state?”
- “The celebrity life is all about that one shot, which is why so many are quitting school and trying to get into agencies.”
- “Isn’t this why everyone wants to become a celebrity? You just need one shot to fame to sweep up all the CF deals and then spend your time making money off of buying and selling buildings!”
