Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said of the June 27 loan regulations and the Sept. 7 supply measures announced to stabilize the dwellings market, "There were partial results, but I think they are still far from sufficient."
The Minister responded this way to a question from People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jong-yang at the Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee's National Assembly audit on the morning of the 13th, asking, "Do you believe the two rounds of real estate measures are effective?"
The Minister said, "The June 27 measures were demand-suppression steps designed to block funds from flowing into real estate," adding, "The Sept. 7 measures are centered on slightly increasing supply to influence the market because we are currently facing a supply cliff."
At the same time, in response to the question, "What do you think is most important for the government's real estate policy to be persuasive to the public?" the Minister answered, "Trust is important."
The Minister also said the ministry would consider improvement directions, including a plan to abolish the Korea Real Estate Board (REB)'s weekly apartment price trend survey, which is released every week. During the audit that day, when Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Yeon-hee pointed out, "The weekly statistics do not properly reflect actual transaction prices and only fuel confusion," the Minister said, "We are currently organizing the results report of the research project," and added, "We will take steps to reduce the ills inherent in the statistics."
Regarding the request by the bereaved families of the Dec. 29 passenger plane crash to halt the investigation by the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board, the Minister answered, "We are conducting a legal review."
Even so, the Minister said, "As a rule, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport does not intervene in accident investigation work," adding, "I will once again look into ways to either move up as much as possible the interim research-service (accident investigation) briefing scheduled for early Nov. or otherwise resolve the inconvenience."