When an 8-year-old South Korean boy blew out his birthday candles, the gift he received was not a toy, but three shares of Samsung Electronics stock from his father.This scene is happening all over South Korea. More and more parents are giving up the tradition of buying houses for their children, and even opening securities accounts for their babies on the day they are born, allowing their infants to become shareholders of semiconductor giants.
The reason is that the crazy rise in housing prices in Seoul has shattered the dreams of ordinary families to buy a house. Since the epidemic, housing prices in Seoul have soared by 80% to 100%, and the median apartment price in 2025 has exceeded 1 billion won. Ordinary families are not only unable to afford real estate in core areas, but are also unwilling to buy suburban properties, because many places in South Korea have seen a long-term downward trend in suburban housing prices similar to Japan.
More importantly, South Korea’s tax policy provides convenience for this new method of wealth inheritance. According to the current Inheritance and Gift Tax Act, minors under the age of 19 can receive a tax-free gift limit of 20 million won every 10 years. The tax exemption limit for adult children is increased to 50 million won every 10 years.
From this, the parents designed a complete asset transfer plan. 20 million will be transferred when the child is born, another 20 million will be transferred when he is 10 years old, and 50 million will be transferred at the age of 20 and 30. At the age of 30, he will be able to obtain 140 million won of assets legally and tax-free, which is approximately US$100,000.
The reason for choosing stocks instead of cash is that gift tax is only calculated based on the value at the time of transfer, and subsequent appreciation does not need to be paid, which can effectively avoid inheritance tax of up to 50%.
According to data released by the Korean Securities Depository, as of the end of 2025, the number of minor shareholders in South Korea was 343,694, accounting for 8.19% of the total shareholders, and the total value of shareholdings was approximately 2.68 trillion won.
Meanwhile, South Korea's epic semiconductor bull market has added fuel to the craze. As of April 30, 2026, the KOSPI index closed at 6598.87 points, an increase of 56.59% during the year, surpassing the United Kingdom to become the eighth largest stock market in the world. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together account for more than 40% of KOSPI's total market value. Their stock prices increased by 83% and 97% respectively during the year, making them the most popular investment targets.
This trend is spreading in East Asia, with China and Japan also showing signs of wealth transfer to liquid assets. However, experts warn that Korean investors’ common habit of using leverage to speculate in stocks, coupled with the cyclical risks of the semiconductor industry, has laid hidden dangers for this “baby investment boom”.