Construction and Transportation Ministry, Attract People to Buy Houses with Stable Policy

Kang Dong-suk, minister of construction and transportation, announced yesterday that “allowing local governments to actively participate in increasing the supply of rental houses, local developments such as easing road construction regulations, and rental house construction projects will be linked.”

Kang added, “Now there is no demand for houses, because the people who don’t own their own homes can’t afford to buy one, and the people who do aren’t buying new ones, because they are worried that the value of the house won’t rise. In order to increase the demand for houses, we are preparing ways to attract people with money to buy their second houses.”

He made these reports in his regular press conference held at the Gwacheon government complex and commented, “The plans to create a boom in the construction business will be made without revising the 10•29 Plan, and the plans won’t be running from extreme to extreme.”

Meanwhile, the government and the ruling party will be holding a party-government consultative conference today to decide on plans to promote construction business, including plans to increase the supply of rental houses and the demands for houses.

Also, the government stated that to promote rental apartment construction, it is essential to improve the image of rental apartments, which are widely perceived as places where only poor people live. Therefore, the government is planning to increase the supply of mid-sized rental apartments.

An estimated 200 billion won for construction will reportedly be added to this year’s supplementary revised budget bill, including for rental houses and the Housing Credit Guarantee Fund.

Additionally, the government is reportedly planning to expand support for the National Housing Fund in order to increase the supply of houses for commons without houses.

Kwang-Hyun Kim kkh@donga.com