Hong Nam-ki "70,000 Housing Units Supplied This Year... Pre-Subscription Conducted Monthly"

37th Real Estate Market Inspection Meeting Opening Remarks

"House Prices Show Downward Stabilization... Gangnam 4 Districts Decline for 2 Consecutive Months"
"Household Debt Growth Rate Managed at 4-5%, Pre-COVID-19 Levels"

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, presides over the "37th Real Estate Market Inspection Meeting of Related Ministers" and delivers opening remarks at the Government Seoul Office in Gwanghwamun, Seoul on the 19th. (Photo by Ministry of Economy and Finance)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government announced plans to supply 70,000 housing units this year through pre-sale contracts, doubling last year's volume, and to conduct pre-sale contracts monthly starting next month with locations such as Uiwang Gocheon and Incheon Yeongjong in March.

On the 19th, Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, held the 37th Real Estate Market Inspection Meeting with related ministers and stated, "This year, we plan to further strengthen the status and role of pre-sale contracts, which are the spearhead of housing supply, in terms of both securing volume and improving quality."

The government intends to double the supply volume compared to last year and also pursue qualitative improvements. Deputy Prime Minister Hong said, "We will supply about 70,000 units this year through pre-sale contracts, approximately twice last year's volume, and more than half of these, 38,000 units, will be private sector units preferred for their size and brand. Starting next month, we will conduct monthly pre-sale contracts including 6,000 units in Uiwang Gocheon and 9,000 units in Incheon Yeongjong in March to enhance public satisfaction."

He added, "For the first time in Seoul's downtown area, we will supply around 4,000 units through urban complex projects. We will also conduct pre-sale contracts for public self-owned housing for the first time and expand the 3rd New Town supply, which had high competition rates, from 9,000 units to about '12,000 units + α'."

Last year's pre-sale contracts are scheduled to close on the 21st. After completing the recruitment of residents for the 17,000 units in December's pre-sale contracts, a total of 38,000 units will have been supplied through pre-sale contracts. The average competition rate for public sale units was 21:1, surpassing the recent five-year average competition rate of 2.6:1 in the metropolitan area. Regarding this, Deputy Prime Minister Hong said, "Since the implementation of pre-sale contracts in July last year, the proportion of apartment purchases by those under 30 in Seoul decreased from 44.8% in July to 39.9% in November, indicating that it has effectively contributed to calming the young generation's speculative buying sentiment and stabilizing the market."

Deputy Prime Minister Hong assessed that real estate prices have recently shown a downward stabilization trend. He stated, "According to the provisional monthly apartment transaction price trends in December last year, the four Gangnam districts declined for two consecutive months, with the decline rate expanding from -0.05% in November to -0.86% in December. Seoul fell by -0.48%, the metropolitan area by -1.09%, and nationwide by -0.91%, all showing a downward trend."

He also mentioned efforts to manage the household loan growth rate. He said, "In addition to total volume management such as quarterly and financial institution liquidity checks, we will simultaneously manage the system by expanding the application of the Debt Service Ratio (DSR) at the borrower level (individual basis) to keep this year's household debt growth rate at the pre-COVID-19 level of 4-5%."

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