Cho Soo-bin Deletes Video on Fellow Announcer's '5 Billion Won' Banpo Apartment After Source of Funds Sparks Backlash

Former announcer Cho Soo-bin has deleted a YouTube video featuring a visit to a fellow announcer's newly built apartment in Banpo after fierce controversy arose over the source of the funds.

On July 26, Cho uploaded a video titled "Building a Banpo New Apartment with Saved Pennies" on her YouTube channel. The video showed her visiting the home of a junior announcer affiliated with a general programming channel living in Maple Xi in Jamwon-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, and asking about the process of buying a home.

The apartment shown in the video is Maple Xi, a newly constructed complex that began move-ins in June of last year. At the time of presale, the upper price limit on housing was applied, and 59 square meters units were supplied in the 1.7 billion won range. Market prices subsequently surged, with 59 square meters units trading at 4.05 billion won and 84 square meters units trading at 5.08 billion won in May of this year.

In the video, Cho asked her junior, "Announcer salaries are not that high, so what is the secret to acquiring a newly built move-in right in Banpo in a short period?" The junior replied, "Savings," and when asked whether she invested in stocks or coins, she answered, "I didn't."

In response, many reacted that even if the purchase price of the move-in right at the time was set at 1.6 billion won, combining the contract deposit and final payment required at least 900 million to 1 billion won in self-capital, and adding acquisition tax and reconstruction additional dues brought the total funds to around 1.2 billion won, making it hard to believe it was purchased through savings alone.

As the controversy spread, Cho explained in the comments, "The junior couple had dual incomes, worked at the company for a long time, and invested in index funds for a long time." This conflicted with the junior's statement in the video that she did not invest in stocks.

Cho continued, "They bought the house quickly before regulations became stricter. Of course, their parents also helped, but not to an extent outside of social norms, and since I know their situation, the couple's own efforts played a major role. It was before home prices skyrocketed like they do now and when regulations were different. I watched them economize on living costs while dual-income earners with capable husbands and practice good financial tech. I think that until a few years ago, if you pushed yourself a little, there was an opportunity. They lived frugally even though they could have lived extravagantly."

However, as opinions questioning the source of the self-capital continued, Cho changed the video title to "A Visit to My Beloved Junior's New Home Decorated with Secondhand + Refurbished Items". The producing director in charge also posted a separate apology, stating, "We apologize to those who felt uncomfortable with the content's thumbnail and editing." They explained, "While focusing on introducing the house, we failed to sufficiently capture the values and context we wanted to convey. We wanted to show the cast member's diligent attitude toward life and investment philosophy, but it was conveyed differently than intended during the editing process."

Despite the explanations and apologies, the controversy did not subside, and the video was eventually set to private and then deleted. 

(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)