Curbing Runaway
Apartment Prices

MOCT Minister Lee calls for all-out effort to cool off real estate prices

"The Ministry of Construction and Transportation has decided to recover its public trust and make itself a clean and transparent ministry this year, said Minister Lee Yong-sup in his New Year's address.
He said the MOCT is ready to give hope and confidence to the people this year, fully aware that the rising prices of real estate has been a burden to the national economy and it hurt the people, which needs to be corrected.
Government policies should win public trust in particular from those to be affected by the policies in order to be considered good. Unless they win public trust, any good policies would be hard to be implemented, raising unnecessary social costs, which goes to show that the degree of public trust in government policies would decide the effects of those policies, the minister said.
This year will be the year for the MOCT to focus on policies to stabilize the real estate market to bring down the prices of apartments that went out of hand last year. We plan to increase the supply of apartments at low prices and prevent speculative investments in real estates. We plan to enforce the real estate tax system, the restriction on housing resale, the license on land transactions and the registration system for houses, and other regulations to suppress the real estate transactions. At the same time, the ministry will help increase the new houses built in new cities and increase land lots to build houses around the country as early as possible.
The ministry will also expedite the construction of houses in the private sector in full implementation of the Nov. 30 measure to make sure that 110,000 new houses are supplied this year, along with surge in rental houses and other customized rental houses to bring stability to low-income families in housing. The ministry will also revise the housing application system in favor of those who really need houses. The ministry will also launch the operation of the support center for those who want to lease houses from the start of this year. nw

Minister Lee Yong-sup of the Ministry of Construction and Transportation