Posted October. 13, 2003 22:34,
On October 13, President Roh Moo-hyun spoke at an administrative policy speech at the National Assembly saying, We will not tolerate any real estate speculations. If the comprehensive real estate policy that the government has been preparing recently is not sufficient, we will consider adopting a strong public land system. He emphasized, Still, a lot of people do not believe in the governments real estate policy where words like Nowhere but Gangnam gets around. Stable housing prices are crucial in the peoples lives; therefore, we will strictly practice the plans to stabilize the prices.
Related to this issue on the same day, Kim Jin-pyo, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy said, We will suggest all the possible policies in order to stabilize the real estate prices by taking taxation, banking, education and other national policies into comprehensive consideration.
If the government introduces the concepts of a public land system, the following programs would be: a program that extends the development interest redemption policy that was to be terminated next January, a program to adopt a housing dealing permit system that requires housing dealings to obtain a permit that extends from the existing land dealing permit system, and a program to absorb most of the dealing interest by strengthening transfer income tax from a family that has multiple houses.
Ryu Yoon-ho, the director of land at the Ministry of Construction and Transportation said, We are discussing the extension of the development interest redemption policy with the Ministry of Planning and Budget. For the metropolitan areas, we have already established a common agreement to extend the valid dates of the current system for a certain period. Meanwhile, there are some concerned views about the Presidents speech on adopting a strong public land system.
Cha Heun-kwon, a lawyer at the Eulji Judicial Affairs Corporation said, We have had cases where the housing land owning limit, as part of the Three laws of Public Concept derived from the public concepts of land, was judged to be unconstitutional and that the excess in land interest tax was not in accordance with the constitution. There is a high chance that the new policy will be drawn into arguments of its unconstitutionality, violating the private property right, preserved by the constitution.