The ruling in an administrative lawsuit seeking to cancel the designation of certain areas as adjustable target areas under the Oct. 15 real estate measures will come on the 29th of this month.
According to the Administrative Division 14 of the Seoul Administrative Court on the 15th, it plans to hand down a ruling on the 29th of this month in an administrative lawsuit seeking to cancel the designation of eight areas—including Seoul's Gangbuk, Geumcheon, Dobong, and Jungnang districts; Uiwang in Gyeonggi; Jungwon in Seongnam; and Jang'an and Paldal districts in Suwon—as adjustable target areas. At the first hearing held that day, the panel said, "We will deliver the ruling at 10 a.m. on Jan. 29."
Earlier, the Reform Party and some residents filed an administrative lawsuit seeking cancellation, saying that when the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the Oct. 15 real estate measures bundling all of Seoul and 12 areas in Gyeonggi as regulated areas (adjustable target areas and overheated speculation districts), it intentionally omitted statistics, resulting in eight areas that did not meet the criteria for adjustable target areas being grouped as regulated areas.
On the day, the plaintiffs argued that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) used June–August statistics instead of July–September dwelling price growth statistics from the Korea Real Estate Board (REB) to include these eight areas as adjustable target areas.
The plaintiffs said, "Areas where the dwelling price growth rate over the past three months exceeds 1.3 times the inflation rate can be designated as adjustable target areas at a minimum, but the defendant (the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT)) did not apply the September statistics artificially despite already having them," and added, "Because the legal requirements (for designation as an adjustable target area) were not met, we seek cancellation."
In response, the legal representative for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) dismissed the claim, saying that the statistics referred to in the Enforcement Decree of the Housing Act are limited to published statistics and that there was no illegality in the designation procedure for adjustable target areas.
The defendant said, "The Enforcement Decree of the Housing Act presupposes the use of published statistics," and added, "Under the Statistics Act, unpublished statistics must not be leaked. This is to prevent undermining the neutrality of statistics, and because the Housing Policy Deliberation Committee (Jujeongsim) is an independent body with a majority of private commissioners, providing statistics before publication would violate the Statistics Act." The defendant continued, "Statistics can be used as a basis for policy judgment only after their reliability is verified prior to publication. Otherwise, the legitimacy and credibility of the policy could be undermined," adding, "The Board of Audit and Inspection has also demanded disciplinary action for acts of providing (unpublished statistics) in advance."
The defendant also said, "If, as the plaintiff claims, the adjustable target areas were designated, the (real estate stabilization measures) could have been delayed from late October to early November," and added, "Considering that the real estate market at the time of designation of adjustable target areas was rapidly overheating, this would have led to a policy mistiming, clearly resulting in the adverse effect of urgently designating more areas as regulated areas in the long run."