Governor Won Hee-ryong and People Power Party Mayors and Governors Jointly Discuss 'Realistic Publicly Announced Property Prices'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters (Jeju) Reporter Park Chang-won] Won Hee-ryong, Governor of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, held a meeting on the 18th with five mayors and governors from the People Power Party to jointly respond to the rapid rise and realization of official property prices.

The meeting was attended by Oh Se-hoon, Mayor of Seoul; Park Hyung-joon, Mayor of Busan; Kwon Young-jin, Mayor of Daegu; and Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk. After a closed-door discussion on the realization of official property prices, they issued a joint proposal.

In his opening remarks, Governor Won said, “Official property prices are a very important basic measure for the quality of life and welfare of the people because they are used in 63 tax-related fields,” and introduced efforts such as the establishment and operation of the Official Property Price Verification Center in Jeju, joint investigations with Seocho-gu, and the issuance of proposals to the government.

Governor Won emphasized local government enforcement authority, stating, “In addition to official property prices, there are many areas requiring joint measures and demands to the central government, such as real estate speculation. The Jeju Autonomous Police Agency is conducting large-scale crackdowns focusing on real estate speculation through investigations tailored to local circumstances, including the implementation of measures to strengthen farmland functions in Jeju and countermeasures against the splitting of urban land as a loophole.”

After the closed-door discussion, Governor Won announced the joint proposal of the five local government heads.

The main points include ▲ providing local government heads with the official apartment price survey and calculation report to present specific calculation grounds ▲ immediate audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection on numerous official property prices with low reliability ▲ freezing the 2021 official property prices at the previous year’s level to alleviate the tax burden on citizens struggling due to COVID-19 ▲ transferring the authority to decide official apartment prices to local governments.

In response to the question, “The government has stated that 90% of the people will actually see a reduced burden due to property tax reductions and public health insurance premium increases. Why do you think the official land price is still a problem?” Governor Won replied, “Official property prices directly serve as the basis for taxes on houses and real estate, so the government unilaterally raising them by up to 90% and arbitrarily applying realization rates to individual houses violates the constitutional tax law provisions.”

He added, “Tax burdens must be defined by law through strict review by the National Assembly, which represents taxpayers. The unilateral and rapid increase in official property prices is an illegal act that directly violates the constitutional provisions of tax legality and could even be unconstitutional.”

Governor Won mentioned, “The five local government heads have gathered opinions not only on real estate issues but also on national issues such as balanced regional development, local autonomy including autonomous police, and the direction and roles that the People Power Party, to which they belong, should take.”

Meanwhile, Governor Won has continued his efforts on official property price issues, including proposing a joint response investigation with Seocho-gu on the 5th to request the transfer of the government’s decision-making authority on real estate price disclosure to local governments.

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