Lee Jae-myung: "The Lee Jae-myung Government Will Not Allow Real Estate Crimes to Take Root"

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, held a New Year's press conference on the 4th at the Kia Motors factory in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, under the theme "Vision for Korea's Great Transformation and National Leap Forward." Photo by the National Assembly Press Photographers Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, announced the eradication of speculative land investment as the seventh pledge of ‘Myeonghwakhaeng (Lee Jae-myung’s Certain Happiness)’ on the 6th. Candidate Lee stated, “Under the Lee Jae-myung administration, real estate-related crimes will not be allowed to take root,” and “We will establish a fair and transparent transaction order.”

On the morning of the same day, the candidate said on Facebook, “During my time as Governor of Gyeonggi Province, I focused on eradicating speculative land investment. Speculative land investment, which deceives by dividing undevelopable land into small plots and selling it as if it were developable land, exploits the frustration and deprivation of ordinary people regarding real estate, producing numerous victims and even paralyzing the government’s national land planning, making it a serious crime.”

He added, “(During my governorship) I cooperated with the National Police Agency and operated the ‘Speculative Land Investment Illegal Activity Reporting Center’ to immediately investigate and apprehend speculative land investment crimes suspected of illegal activity. As a result, as of November last year, 147 cases of damage reports were referred for investigation, and in June, 15 people from 12 speculative land investment companies were arrested, with applications made for confiscation and recovery of illegal profits amounting to 24.2 billion KRW.”

He continued, “Prevention is as important as certain punishment. We designated land transaction permission zones in 29 cities and counties in Gyeonggi Province to preemptively block speculation by speculative land investment,” and “An analysis of forest land share transactions over 11 months around July 2020 showed that share transactions decreased by about 31% compared to before the designation of land transaction permission zones.”

He concluded, “Based on these achievements in eradicating speculative land investment, we will ensure that real estate crimes cannot take root,” and added, “We will seek reforms together with the National Assembly, such as fundamentally restricting forest land share transactions by speculative land investment through amendments to the ‘Real Estate Transaction Reporting Act.’”

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