Speculation Regulatory Measures to be Eased Greatly this Year

Lee Hun-jae, vice economic prime minister, announced on January 7 his plan to ease dramatically regulations on real estate, saying, “We will reasonably coordinate our system to control real estate speculation this year.”

He stressed in a meeting of construction industry insiders marking the New Year at the Lotte Hotel, Seoul, “We’ll ease direct regulation regarding our speculation control system including regulations of reconstruction and designation of speculative and house trade report areas which will allow the market to function smoothly.”

He explained, “Our ministry plans to nurture actively businessmen working for the trade of corporate-style rental houses and to pursue the construction of mid-sized rental houses,” adding, “Moreover, we will work on our large-scale projects including building new, corporate cities like Pangyo, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do province.”

Vice Prime Minister Lee went on to say, “We’ll passionately attract private capital to the construction of social welfare facilities and social overhead capital, or SOC, to create a greater need for construction, and draw more investments by using idle capital in the market and technologies in the industry.”

In the meantime, he hinted at the fact that the ministry is reviewing reduction and exemption of principal sums, saying, “Banks should reduce the burden of paying back debt for credit delinquents whose basic livelihoods are supported by the government.”

He told reporters on the same day, “The government’s financial aid for those whose lives are supported by the government should not be used for the payment of debt,” stressing, “Banks should duly join efforts to support them, as they are the ones that lent the money.” Presently, as many as 1.4 million Koreans are supported by the government.

Chi-Young Shin higgledy@donga.com