Gov`t to Not Allow Buying and Selling of Reconstructed Apartments

A fierce debate is expected to arise after the government announced that it is planning to ban the buying and selling of property that has reconstructed apartments on it.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation said on August 13th, “Despite our series of market stability measures this year, some areas in the southern part of Seoul, namely Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu, are not relenting in their apartment price hikes due to some of the apartment complexes which are scheduled to be reconstructed. To solve this problem we are considering various measures, including a total ban on trading membership.”

The Ministry added that it would mull over legal action regarding its new policy. The new measure was conceived after the Ministry received harsh criticism for its lenient attitude against apartment membership because of its concerns over violations of private property ownership.

The Ministry has taken this measure in an effort to not let apartment memberships be transferred or sold until ownership registration is completed in some highly contested speculation areas.

Meanwhile, law experts are divided over this issue, arguing between the legal ends of “right “and “wrong”.

A law professor at Chungang University, Kim Jong-bo, said, “Generally, housing prices go up with reconstruction, and this is type of benefit given out by the government. From that perspective, there is no problem with the government restricting apartment ownership for a certain period of time.”

On the other hand, Cha Hung-kwan, a lawyer at Ulgi Cooperative Law Firm, said, “Reconstructed apartments change the value of household property. The government would not be acting in accordance with the constitution if it tried to prohibit selling and buying of that kind of property.”

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com