The government wants to prevent LH employees from acquiring land…Can the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport a government official be apostle?

Input 2021.03.14 15:19 | Revision 2021.03.14 15:33

While suspicion of land speculation by employees of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) spreading to political circles and public institutions, Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun said on the 14th, “In the future, LH executives and employees will be prohibited from acquiring land for purposes other than actual use.” Regarding this, experts pointed out, “It is not only LH that speculates, and no one speculates in their own name.”

Prime Minister Chung said at a meeting of the ministers involved in the follow-up measures related to the LH land dumping incident held at the government’s Seoul office on the same day. He said, “I will ban the acquisition of land other than the purpose of actual use by LH executives and employees in the future,” he said.

However, the issue of equity is pointed out in that the group that can speculate land using prior information is not limited to LH. From the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to the local city corporation, the Korea Expressway Corporation, local governments, and high-ranking public officials, there are various groups that can access information on foot.

In fact, an employee of the Korea Expressway Corporation purchased land in 2016 using private information, the design drawings of the highway between Saemangeum and Jeonju. Mr. A was found to have bought about 1,800 square meters of land just 1.5 km away from the planned expressway exit, and was dismissed in 2018.

In addition, public official B, who was in charge of railroad work in Pocheon City, was accused of purchasing 2,600m2 of land and a one-story building near the planned railway station construction site. Mr. B bought the land with a loan of 3.4 billion won out of the purchase cost of about 4 billion won, and after that, the establishment of a subway station on Line 7 was confirmed at a distance of 50 meters.

Some ruling party lawmakers are also suspected of speculating on land. Together with Democratic Party lawmaker Yang Hyang-ja, in October 2015, he purchased 3492㎡ of blind land in the Green Belt (restricted development area) area of ​​Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do for 4752 million won. This land was transmitted to a location only 350m from the Hwaseong Bibong Public Housing District. Rep. Yang explained that “I bought it with the intention of building a country house in old age or planting persimmon trees,” and that it has nothing to do with real estate speculation.

Prime Minister Chung said he would ban the acquisition of land by’LH executives and employees’, but some point out that the effectiveness of land speculation will be inferior because most of the land speculation is carried out under a new name. Acquisition of land in the name of a spouse, parents, or children cannot be prevented, and it is difficult to detect if it is dumped under the name of an acquaintance who does not appear on the certificate of family relations.

Earlier on the 9th, a user who is presumed to be an LH employee in the anonymous community’Blind’ said, “I have done everything under the car name to find out, but how do I find it?” He also bought a ball.

Professor Shim Gyo-eon of Konkuk University’s Department of Real Estate said, “It is a’hard policy’ to prevent inheritance of land such as Sunsan because of being an LH employee. “A practical solution must come out, such as stipulating the procedure for capturing the speculation situation by analyzing the land transaction,” he said.