Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport emphasized that the government is reviewing ways to expand or shrink real estate regulated areas following the implementation of the Oct. 15 dwellings market stabilization measures.
Minister Kim said at the Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee's full session on the 11th, in response to a question from Yeom Tae-young of the Democratic Party of Korea asking, "Is there a plan to adjust regulated areas in the future?", "I think it is important for the government to proceed consistently with a policy once released, but the market is highly variable, so there is room for review."
Kim added, "Currently, in areas such as Hwaseong and Guri, there are concerns that real estate prices may rise due to a balloon effect," noting, "It is also necessary to consider expanding regulations in some areas. Nothing has been decided, and we are continuously reviewing government measures in response to market conditions."
Earlier, through the Oct. 15 measures, the government designated all of Seoul and 12 locations in Gyeonggi Province as areas subject to adjustment, speculative overheating districts, and land transaction permit zones. Since then, transaction volume in non-regulated areas of the greater Seoul area has increased significantly compared with before the regulations, and the pace of home price gains has also expanded.
At the same time, Minister Kim again stressed that the Oct. 15 real estate measures announced in the previous month designated regulated areas within a minimum scope, and that using the June–August home price growth statistics as the baseline at the time of designation was lawful. The opposition is raising suspicions that the government, finding that if it used the July–September statistics as the basis the inflation rate would be higher and some areas might fall outside the criteria, excluded the September statistics and set the baseline to June–August to broaden regulated areas.
When Lee Jong-uk of the People Power Party asked, "If the preconditions of the Oct. 15 measures were wrong at the final review of the Housing Policy Deliberation Committee (HPDC), shouldn't they be revised?", Minister Kim replied, "Working-level officials under the Moon Jae-in administration used the statistics in the same way, and in that process they were subject to investigations or inquiries," adding, "There is some validity to the rationality argument, but it cannot be deemed illegal."
Responding to Lee's point that "as this is an issue that greatly affects the property rights of the public, it could be legally canceled," he explained, "We are judging additional designations or cancellations of regulated areas by closely watching market conditions."