'착한임대인 운동' 자치단체들 지원에 힘입어 전국적으로 확산<br /><br />As small businesses hit by the pandemic struggled to pay rent during this pandemic, some landlords had reduced rents for their tenants.<br />Since then, it's grown in size and popularity... into a nationwide movement with landlords and banks reducing or freezing rent.<br />Our Kim Jae-hee has this story.<br />With small business owners struggling to pay rent amid the COVID-19 pandemic,... building owners and property holders are offering rent discounts.<br />This so-called "nice landlord movement" started in February with group of landlords in Jeonju Hanok Village deciding to reduce their rents,... but now has spread nationwide.<br />"The city of Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do Province, has more than one thousand stores participating in the nice landlord movement."<br />"I've decided to lower the rent by 10 percent for three months for all five small businesses in the building. I hope this can help the small businesses recover and overcome this COVID-19 crisis."<br />To encourage more landlords to follow suit, the city of Gwangju says it will cut taxes for the "nice landlords."<br />"We're planning to provide a 50 percent reduction in national taxes or regional taxes for the landlords who participate in the movement,... in the hope that this could help the movement spread."<br />The Ministry of Interior and Safety says more than 100 regional governments across the nation are providing tax reductions to the "nice landlords."<br />Banks have also joined in.<br />The Industrial Bank of Korea, the first bank in the country to participate, has decided to keep the rent of the buildings they own at 70 percent for another 3 months starting June,... on top of the 3 months they've already provided.<br />"We came up with these measures hoping we could help ease the problems small businesses have from declining sales caused by the COVID-19 outbreak,... thinking we're all part of one family."<br />Building owners, regional governments, and banks have all joined together as one to get through this difficult time.<br />Kim Jae-hee, Arirang News.<br />
