[Viewpoint] Blueprint for the Housing Market

The housing market is a highly complex and intertwined organism. It changes constantly. Therefore, a mole-whacking style policy cannot manage it properly. Accurate problem diagnosis and appropriate prescriptions are necessary. What is the problem? High housing prices are not the only issue. While attention is focused on the rise and fall of house prices, on the other hand, some people are struggling to afford monthly rents of just a few hundred thousand won. They worry about leaks during the rainy season. Some parents worry about their children commuting through narrow and dark alleys. Old and dilapidated houses are difficult for elderly people to live in. All of these are housing problems and social issues that our society faces and must solve together.

However, current housing policies only see house prices. As a result, the focus is on catching speculators and reacting emotionally to the difference between yesterday’s and today’s house prices. The old, crumbling houses hidden in dark corners are invisible, and only the flashy skyscraper-like apartments on major roads are seen. There are no rural or fishing village houses in the provinces, only apartments in Seoul with views of the Han River. Every move of the new government’s real estate policy team is under scrutiny. The conversation is full of regulations. How to untangle the complex regulations of the past five years, and what impact deregulation will have on the housing market. Again, it’s about house prices.

Let’s look beyond house prices. What our society needs is suitable housing for each individual. How about considering sophisticated policies that enable citizens to have appropriate homes at the right time to live a decent life? Low-income groups should be able to live in homes suitable for them, and the middle class in homes suitable for them, while programs that generously support opportunities for upward residential mobility through hard work should be meticulously designed. To do this, we must abandon the illusion of half-price apartments. Housing is also a commodity. Ignoring the costs and selling unconditionally at half price is unsustainable. Someone’s gain is someone else’s loss. Policies based on someone’s loss cannot last long.

UN-HABITAT emphasizes that housing must be safe, secure, habitable, and affordable. This is a point that cannot be solved by simply building 2.5 million units. Especially for future housing, price is not the only important factor. Safety, security, performance, quality, and various other values must be comprehensively incorporated to respond to climate change. Therefore, accurate recognition and diagnosis of housing problems and correct prescriptions are urgently needed. To this end, let’s create a ‘housing market blueprint.’

When a building has a problem, we look at the blueprint. By examining the blueprint, we consider where and what kind of problem might have occurred, make a diagnosis accordingly, and devise an appropriate solution. However, since the housing market lacks a blueprint, responses are rushed and localized each time a problem arises. Solving localized problems leads to unexpected issues elsewhere.

The mandatory two-year residence requirement for reconstruction association members, abolished after just one year, is a representative case where incorrect market diagnosis and prescriptions directly harmed tenants. If a prescription had been made in advance that matched the connection structure between reconstruction tenants, homeowners, and the rental market, it might have been prevented. It must never happen again. I propose to the new government: while adjusting the pace, first create a detailed housing market blueprint that properly understands and grasps the housing market structure, and based on that, diagnose housing problems and find solutions.

Kim Deokrye, Director of Policy Research, Korea Housing Industry Institute

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