Yoon vows to abolish house price policy of previous administration

SEOUL, President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Tuesday to abolish a real estate policy adopted by the previous administration to stabilize home prices, saying it only caused greater suffering to the people. Yoon was referring to a 2020 policy under which the government of then President Moon Jae-in decided to gradually raise the declared prices of apartments and other types of real estate to 90 percent of their market prices by 2035. In South Korea, the government uses the declared prices as the basis for various property taxes, and the aim of the measure was to levy "fairer" taxes and bring soaring house prices under control. "Our government will completely abolish the rash plan to make declared prices realistic so that the people can stop being anxious," Yoon said during a government-public debate at Seoul Art Space Mullae, a multi-purpose creative space in western Seoul. "It would be great if we could amend the law, but even before revising the law, we will use various policy tools to produce the effect of an a bolition," he said. Yoon claimed the Moon administration tried to tamp down skyrocketing house prices caused by its own policy failures by imposing "punitive" taxes, but that they only led to a sharp increase in the housing burdens of ordinary people owning one home. "The side effects were enormous and the people's suffering only increased," he said. In addition, Yoon said the government will purchase 100,000 units of newly built small to medium-sized homes over the next two years to lease to vulnerable people for low rent. He also vowed to carry out a major urban regeneration project in Seoul's old city center, including the western Yeongdeungpo Ward where the debate was held. The "New Village Project" will see the renovation of old single-family homes and multi-home residential buildings into modern town houses, with the help of 10 trillion won (US$7.47 billion) in government investment over the next 10 years, he said. Source: Yonhap News Agency