Yang Ki-hwan (57), a representative of the good-natured people, who is called the’good building owner’, is saying hello to the New Year, while lowering rents to tenants for nearly a year from the beginning of last year to now.“I will continue to cut rent this year for more difficult tenants than me.”
There is a protagonist who is carrying out the’Good Building Owner Movement’ for nearly a year as self-employed people faced great difficulties due to the spread of Corona 19 in Daegu last year. Yang Ki-hwan (57) is a representative of the kind people. Yang, who runs a sports clothing manufacturing factory in Daegu, is known as’Gatmulju (a compound word for building owner and god),’ who owns a small shopping mall in Dongseong-ro, the largest downtown area in Daegu.
His company’s sales also plummeted by more than 90%, but he has been cutting rents since March last year for tenants who are more difficult than himself. Representative Yang said, “I’m also having a hard time hit by the Corona 19 direct hit, and I have to pay rent at the workplace, but it’s nothing compared to the pain our tenants suffer,” he said embarrassedly, “I’m doing what I should do of course.” He is giving ten tenants a 30-50% reduction in rent depending on business circumstances, and as a result, about 20 million won of monthly rent has disappeared.
In fact, Yang has been at the forefront of the’Good Building Owner Movement’ that has continued in Daegu since last year.
In March of last year, he was the chairman of the Dongseongro Shopping Street Association and appealed to building owners to join the `rent reduction` with the thought of “If you go like this, you will die.” He said, “To overcome Corona 19, everyone appealed for participation in the campaign with the idea that they were a joint destiny and partner on the same boat.”
Of course, it was the same mentally and economically burdensome for both representatives to carry out the “good building owner movement”. This is because he was in a situation where he had to pay the monthly rent, which had a sharp drop in sales along with other building owners’ stinging eyes. Yang recalled, “At first, I’m the property of others, but I was worried and worried that I would not be cursed by other building owners,” he said.
As such, Yang’s courageous determination eventually began in Dongseong-ro and became an opportunity for the’good building owner movement’ to spread throughout Daegu. In Daegu last year, 2732 building owners participated in the rent cut, benefiting from property tax reduction, and reduced the rent of 5 billion won.
Yang said, “In fact, there are few people who do not have loans, and they pay various expenses, but it is true that the rent reduction is a lot of burden,” said Yang. “But tenants can be of little help as they are people who suffer from a decrease in sales. So many building owners have joined us,” he thanked.
His good works did not stop here either. Yang reassured the tenant that he would keep this deposit as well, although a tenant was in a situation where he could not receive the 50 million won deposit back because he had not paid the monthly rent for the first year. Yang said, “I gave it to a tenant whose rent was overdue if it worked well, and if it didn’t work, I asked him to take it slow later,” he said. “It is my job to help these people recover again.”
In the new year, he said he hoped the “good building owners movement” would spread nationwide. It is because they want to overcome this difficulty and pain together by giving each other opportunities and cheering to overcome the Corona 19 crisis. CEO Yang said, “There may be people who want to sit down and be full, but I want to add a little strength so that we can have the courage to endure more as we have endured well,” and said, “If we all live with the hope that in the new year, we will definitely get better and I do” he said.
[대구 = 우성덕 기자]
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