South Korea's Major Crimes Investigation Agency is spending about 4.6 billion won ($3.3 million) a month to rent buildings for six offices nationwide, including its headquarters, which it shares with the Seoul office.
Monthly rent and maintenance fees for the buildings currently used by the agency's six offices total 4.59 billion won, according to a document on office lease conditions obtained by The Seoul Economic Daily on the 3rd.
Excluding the Suwon office, whose lease runs through June next year, the five offices that signed long-term contracts through 2031 — the headquarters and Seoul office, along with the Busan, Daegu, Gwangju and Daejeon offices — carry annual fixed costs of 52.05 billion won. Adding up payments through the end of those contracts brings the total to more than 270 billion won.
Much of the rent burden is concentrated at the headquarters and the Seoul office. Housed in Renaissance Square in Seoul's Jung-gu district, the two offices pay a combined 3.41 billion won a month, consisting of 2.37 billion won in rent and 1.05 billion won in maintenance fees. That accounts for 74.3% of the total, or 40.96 billion won a year.
Among the regional offices, the Busan office pays the most at 4.27 billion won a year, followed by Daejeon at 2.71 billion won, Gwangju at 2.13 billion won and Daegu at 1.98 billion won. The Suwon office, which signed a short-term lease of less than a year, pays 175 million won in monthly rent and 80 million won in maintenance fees.
