S. Korea’s former Moon gov’t in controversy over housing policies

[Photo by MK DB]

The housing policies of South Korea’s former President Moon Jae-in government are now at the center of the country’s political strife, deepening the chasm between the country’s two major parties that has put the passage of various important bill including next year’s budget bill in limbo.

Maeil Business Newspaper on Monday found that the Moon administration rejected the proposals made by a team at Seoul National University (SNU) that studied measures to stabilize housing prices last year.

“We investigated the market from a different angle and identified meaningful results. It was regrettable that the government did not accept our proposals,” said Professor Jeong Hyeok who led the study.

The Moon government’s policy planning committee early last year commissioned the SNU team to evaluate the country’s housing market and come up with measures to stabilize housing prices.

The former Korean government is said to have rejected the proposals because the ideas were not in line with its policy directions.

The report proposed that the government eases heavy capital gain taxes on sales of homes owned by multi-home owners to allow them to put more houses on sale, which would lead to a fall in housing prices.

The former administration is already embroiled in another controversy of manipulating housing price statistics.