DISCUSSIONS ON POLITICIANS WITH MULTIPLE HOMES

[Anchor Lead]

Demands are growing for lawmakers and high-ranking government officials with multiple homes to be excluded from the real estate policy-making process. A series of related bills are being tabled to prevent conflict of interest related to real estate matters.

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56 lawmakers belong to the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee and Strategy and Finance Committee. Among them, 15 are multiple homeowners and nine of them own more than two houses in the real estate regulated areas. More than a third of 107 senior officials of the land and finance ministries were found to be multiple home owners. Questions have been raised as to whether these officials with multiple homes should be involved in the making of real-estate laws and policies. A recent public opinion poll showed that more than 70% of the respondents were in favor of excluding high-ranking officials with multiple homes from real-estate-related work. Subsequently, a series of bills has been tabled to prevent conflict of interest related to the housing market. When lawmakers and senior government officials own more than two homes, their relevancy to property-related work will be reviewed before they are excluded from committees or projects related to real estate. Government officials working on real-estate matters who have to disclose their assets have been lowered to grade 4.

[Soundbite] REP. CHEON JUN-HO(DEMOCRATIC PARTY) : "People are suspicious that these lawmakers are making policies and laws for their own interests. We need to gain people's trust in order for the real estate policies to succeed."

Lawmakers also tabled a bill that mandates high-level officials and National Assembly members to own only one house. This bill forces them to sell or put into trust houses that they are not living in.

[Soundbite] KIM SEONG-DAL(CITIZENS' COALITION FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE) : "I hope these bills are legislated to show the politicians' resolve to implement the real estate policies and end speculation."

But it doesn't seem likely for these bills to be passed by parliament any time soon. An official of the Democratic Party's policy committee said no detailed discussion has taken place yet inside the party. Meanwhile, a high-ranking official with the main opposition United Future Party was rather reserved, saying that the conflict of interest issue should be reviewed from all aspects.