Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on the 13th that the ministry is "aware of the seriousness" of illegal acts such as inflating home prices and will work with investigative authorities to swiftly draw up countermeasures.
At the National Assembly's Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee audit in Yeouido, Seoul, that day, Minister Kim responded to Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Yeon-hee's point that "malicious false reports of home prices intended to inflate prices are crimes that disrupt the market and take away the chance for homeownership from housing-insecure ordinary people, so strong preventive measures are needed," by saying the same.
Minister Kim said, "Recently, (dwellings) transaction volume has increased significantly, and when conducting electronic transactions, preferential interest rates are offered, so there are parts where people cancel existing contracts and proceed, increasing (the scale of canceled transactions). But there are also many cases where people file transaction reports at high prices and, if market prices rise, do not conclude the actual contracts." He added, "At the level of the ministry, I think it is important to handle this issue swiftly."
Minister Kim went on to say, "We will cooperate with the National Tax Service and the Korean National Police Agency. First Vice Minister of the ministry Lee Sang-gyeong recently met directly with the commissioner general of the National Office of Investigation at the National Police Agency," adding, "By meeting the commissioner general of the National Office of Investigation, who can make decisions directly rather than those at the working level, we set a direction to conduct a full-scale investigation and will move quickly."