HOUSE PRICES

[Anchor Lead]

The prices of over 17 million apartments and single-family residences nationwide have been made public. With a surge of more than 14 percent in apartment prices in Seoul, the number of related complaints has jumped over 20 fold compared to last year.

[Pkg]

​These two apartments are located on the same floor in the same building in the same complex. However, the smaller one's official value is appraised higher. With growing public distrust in the calculation of official housing values, over 28,000 complaints have been issued by home owners. The number is up 22 times from last year.

[Soundbite] LEE MOON-KI(MINISTRY OF LAND, INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT) : "More complaints are received when housing prices surge. A similar situation was observed in 2007 with a spike in property values."

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport carried out a review and modified the prices of some 6,100 residences. The official values of 13.39 million apartments jumped 5.24 percent on average across the nation. Seoul saw the largest hike at 14.02 percent, followed by Gwangju and Daegu. Conversely, Ulsan saw the greatest drop of more than 10 percent. Housing prices also fell in 10 other provinces and cities. 218,000 apartments or 1.6 percent of the total are valued at over 900 million won, which is the threshold for the imposition of the comprehensive real estate tax. The ministry, however, did not announce statistics regarding some 4.19 million stand-alone residential homes. It also refused to reveal the exact number of calculation errors committed by local governments and the methods used to correct them. Amid continuing controversy over the assessment of official housing values, which serve as criteria for some 60 administrative affairs, the official values of about 17 million residences will be available on a government website on property prices starting April 30.