Marking 100 days in office, Korea Real Estate Board (REB) President Lee Heon-wook expressed his ambition, saying the agency will support solutions to national real estate issues by using real estate data and grow into a data hub that underpins real estate policy.
On the 18th, Lee held a press briefing at a Chinese restaurant in Sejong and said, the REB has supported national real estate policy in a wide range of areas beyond appraisal, including disclosure, statistics, subscriptions, market management, urban renewal, and green architecture.
Lee cited the "spatial structure problem," along with finance and taxation, as the most serious issue in the data. He pointed out a structural constraint in which about 72% of the national land is mountainous and the practical urban space is only around 4%. He then noted that the urban population ratio, which was 14.5% at the time of liberation, has now reached 92% in official statistics, saying, the core of the real estate problem is the urban problem, and good real estate and good dwellings are provided only when we build good cities.
As a measure to resolve regional imbalances, Lee called for reorganizing the spatial structure and said the agency has begun research to present, through data, the most innovative and livable city in the world based on the data it holds. He said it will offer a "city by the numbers" project that shows the imbalance status of cities nationwide, including Seoul, Daegu, and Ulsan, with clear figures. The REB recently formed an internal task force and plans to release the results at the end of the year.
Regarding the annual controversy over the gap between officially assessed values and actual transaction prices, Lee drew a line, saying, it is nonsense to say that the actual transaction price and the price surveyed by an investigator must be the same, and there are quite a few abnormal transactions, low- and high-priced transactions, hidden gifts, or transactions among related parties in actual transactions, so you cannot rely solely on actual transaction prices.
He explained that the officially assessed value is, in principle, calculated by multiplying the price surveyed by an investigator with professional judgment by a realization rate, as set by law, and that the current method of surveying based on the investigator's expertise is, if anything, a fair approach the public can accept.
On the debate over whether to abolish the weekly apartment price trend, he noted, he understands there have been many internal and external challenges to the significance of weekly statistics, and globally there are almost no cases where a country releases official statistics on a weekly basis. Still, he added that as the REB is a survey institution, if policy authorities decide to change the statistical cycle to biweekly or monthly, it will comply.
Regarding the ongoing statistical audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection, Lee said the agency is actively cooperating as the audited body and hopes it will be concluded quickly. He said, at first, there was a controversy over manipulation in the statistical section, but now it seems people are not calling it manipulation, and in court and elsewhere it has shifted to saying it was a "correction." Asked whether there are mechanisms to block future political interference or external pressure on statistics, he expressed strong confidence in the verification system currently in place.
In addition, regarding concerns about the rental market shifting to monthly rents and growing instability, Lee said the agency will continue efforts to advance statistics by supplementing on-site surveys by professional investigators with artificial intelligence (AI) price references. He said the newly established head of the REITs Support Center will be recruited through an open call from the market, bringing in a person recognized for expertise.