President Moon: "Rapid Rise in Real Estate Prices Must Be Restored... Will Continuously Announce Measures"

President Moon's Three Key Real Estate Measures This Year
① Restore Rapid Price Increases to Original Levels
② Always Prepare Supplementary Measures for Balloon Effects Under 900 Million Won and Rising Jeonse Prices
③ Strengthening Property Tax and Lowering Transaction Tax Are the Right Direction... But Should Be Carefully Reviewed

President Moon Jae-in is answering questions from the press at the 2020 New Year's press conference held at the Blue House's Yeongbingwan on the morning of the 14th. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] President Moon Jae-in outlined the direction of this year's real estate policy during his New Year's press conference. President Moon stated, “(Real estate prices) have risen so sharply that it is difficult for ordinary citizens to accept,” and added, “The rapid price increases must be restored to their original state.” He also mentioned, “There may be side effects such as the balloon effect or rising jeonse prices that differ from the policy direction,” and said, “We will always consider supplementary measures.”

At the New Year's press conference held on the 14th at the Blue House's State Guest House under the theme “Certain Change, Republic of Korea 2020,” President Moon said, “The government's determination to curb speculation and stabilize prices is firm.”

Regarding the December 16 measures announced last year, President Moon self-assessed, “The real estate market seems to be stabilizing considerably,” but also noted, “Since the focus was on high-priced homes over 900 million won and multiple-home owners, we are closely monitoring the balloon effect of prices rising for homes under 900 million won, and the phenomenon of jeonse prices rising as purchase demand shifts to jeonse demand. We will always consider supplementary measures.”

Continuing on the issue of rising real estate prices, President Moon diagnosed the cause by saying, “Globally, liquidity is excessive and interest rates are low, so speculative funds with nowhere else to go are flowing into real estate, and there are many countries around the world where prices are soaring much more than in Korea.” He explained that due to this cause, “When measures are introduced, they work for a considerable period, but eventually speculative capital finds indirect means of speculation, which is the nature of speculative capital.” Therefore, he expressed the government's determination by stating, “If the current measures are judged to have fulfilled their purpose, the government will continuously introduce stronger measures.”

In his New Year's address on the 7th, President Moon declared, “The government's determination to stabilize the real estate market, protect actual buyers, and suppress speculation is firm,” and said, “We will never lose the war against real estate speculation.” Along with this, he pledged, “We will also steadily expand housing supply,” and added, “We will make every effort to protect the housing of ordinary citizens such as newlyweds and single-person households.”

President Moon also expressed his stance on real estate taxation. He said, “It is the right direction to strengthen holding taxes and lower transaction taxes,” but added, “It is difficult to lower transaction taxes immediately because acquisition tax and registration tax are local government revenues.” He expressed a cautious stance by saying, “We will carefully review this while monitoring real estate trends.” Regarding capital gains tax, he stated, “Since capital gains tax is a tax on unearned income arising from buying and selling real estate, lowering it does not align with public sentiment.”

This was President Moon's third New Year's press conference. Unlike previous years, since he delivered a New Year's address on the 7th, the conference was held without a separate New Year's speech and proceeded in a Q&A format after a brief opening remark of about three minutes. The Q&A with reporters was divided into three topics?politics and society, livelihood and economy, and diplomacy and security?without pre-selecting questioners.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.