![Citizens' opposition that the publicly announced price of apartment houses in 2021, announced by the government, is not transparent is growing. A citizen is passing in front of the Seoul Office of the Korea Real Estate Agency located in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. [이충우 기자]](https://i0.wp.com/file.mk.co.kr/meet/neds/2021/03/image_readtop_2021_255907_16159708564577104.jpg?w=560&ssl=1)
There is growing opposition from citizens that the publicly announced prices of apartment houses in 2021, announced by the government, are not transparent. Citizens pass in front of the Seoul Office of the Korea Real Estate Agency located in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. [이충우 기자]“It’s totally different from the government-approved statistics, the rate of increase in house prices for real estate agents, and paying taxes according to it without revealing the grounds or standards. Is this what is happening in a democratic country in the 21st century?”
This is a citizen’s article posted on a real estate online site. As the official price of apartments rose to the highest level in 14 years this year, citizens’ complaints and suspicions over the government’s method of calculating the official price are strongly raised. In fact, as a result of comparing the rate of increase in the publicly announced prices by region and the rate of increase in house prices over the past three years, Maeil Economic Daily has found that the publicly priced areas that are far from the market price have emerged. According to the Korea Real Estate Agency on the 17th, the rate of increase in house prices in Busan last year was 7.91%, more than twice that of Seoul (3.01%). However, the rate of increase in public prices was higher in Seoul (19.91%) than in Busan (19.67%). At a briefing on the 15th, Land Policy Officer Kim Hyung-seok of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport explained, “(Last year) the rate of change in market price seems to have had a significant influence on this published price.”
However, in certain regions such as Seoul, it is evaluated that factors outside the market price are strongly reflected in the quoted price. Gyeongnam (4.35%) and Chungnam (5.39%), which had a slightly higher rate of increase in house prices than Seoul last year, recorded 10.15% and 9.23%, respectively. Seoul is not the only area where the rate of increase in public prices is playing separately from house prices. In the case of Gyeongbuk, the rate of increase in house prices was 1.39% last year, which was lower than that of Gwangju (1.68%) and Jeonnam (1.68%), but the official price increase rate was 6.3%, higher than that of Gwangju and Jeonnam, which showed a 4% increase. In Jeju, the house price fell -1.95% last year, but the official price this year rose 1.72%.
The same applies to the sum of the past three years. As a result of comparing the rate of increase in publicly announced land prices by region over the past three years with the rate of increase in house prices in the previous year, anomalies have emerged one after another. Korea Real Estate Agency The rate of increase in house prices in Seoul in 2019 was 1.25%, but the published price in 2020 rose by 14.7%. The rate of increase in public prices reached 11.8 times the rate of increase in house prices. In Seoul, the published price rose 14.01% in 2019 as well, showing a 10% increase in the listed price, down three years. In particular, last year, the Korea Real Estate Agency announced the result that the national house price fell by an average of 0.36%, but the government raised the official price by 5.99%. In three regions, including Gyeonggi, Busan, and Sejong, the published price rose up to 5% even though the house price fell according to the statistics released by the Korea Real Estate Agency. In the end, the publicly priced price for Jung-gu heating inevitably spreads the suspicion of citizens that the government officials levied tax bombs only in certain areas without reasonable grounds, either personally or arbitrarily.
An official from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, “Real estate agency house price statistics are for sample houses, so if the price is too high or too low, statistics are distorted.” There is,” he explained.
The problem is that even if the individual figures are not correct, they should show similar trends in statistics, but they are not at all. In addition, it is a serious problem that the public cannot even estimate how much the rate of increase in house prices affects the published price.
If the Korea Real Estate Agency provides the data, the public price is determined by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport according to the Real Estate Price Disclosure Act. After that, it is deliberated and disclosed by the Central Real Estate Price Disclosure Committee, and no more than 6 public officials and a person commissioned by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport serve as the members. It is a structure in which the official price is reflected as the regime’s breath.
The government has also come up with an absurd plan to forcibly raise the quoted price to 90% of the market price by 2030. “If the government monopolizes real estate information, good services cannot come out, and the controversy will continue,” said Soo-yeon Sue, a professor of economics at Jeju National University.
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