Real Estate Market

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The Moon Jae-in government has announced its first set of measures to curb the overheated real estate market. Key measures include expanding the limit on resale of newly built homes and strengthening loan regulations in speculation-prone areas. Here are the details.

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The resale of newly built homes will now be banned in all areas of Seoul. This regulation, formerly limited to four of Seoul's wealthy districts, has now been expanded to the entire capital. The ban aimed at preventing speculative activity by those who sell purchase rights to a newly built apartment unit with an added premium. So-called real estate adjustment areas where various regulations are in place will increase to 40 areas from the current 37. The additions are Gwangmyeong in Gyeonggi-do Province and Gijang county and Busanjin-gu district in port city Busan. Loan regulations will be stepped up in these 40 areas. Loan-to-value and debt-to-income ratios will also be marked down by 10 percentage points in a bid to decrease loan extensions. Until now, an office worker with an annual salary of 80 million won could take out a maximum mortgage loan of 690 million won. This will drop to around 570 million won. Also, the debt-to-income ratio will be lowered to 50% in the case of outstanding loans. This marks the first restriction on collective loans which hitherto were not regulated for the purpose of facilitating the newly built housing market. The number of rebuilt houses that can be supplied to a member of a housing project will also be dropped to one from the current limit of up to three. However, loans for housing costing less than 500 million won or provided to those who do not yet own a home will not be regulated in the interests of protecting real demand. The government has warned that if real estate speculation continues even after these regulations, it will actively consider designating speculation-ridden areas which were exempt from the latest measures.