Gov't to build 320,000 new homes for low income families by 2012

SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will build 320,000 new, affordable homes for low income families by 2012 to deal with skyrocketing local housing prices, the government said Thursday.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said the move is a follow up
to President Lee Myung-bak's announcement made last week calling for a
fundamental solution to the country's chronic housing shortage.
Home prices have shot up an average 25 percent throughout the country since 1999,
while jumping 100 percent in some districts in Seoul. Such gains have made it
effectively impossible for most low income earners to buy their own homes.
The ministry said it will ease the country's rigorously enforced rules limiting
development in areas designated as greenbelts to make more space, with 80,000
homes to be provided annually over the next four years.
Originally, the ministry said it would build 120,000 new homes by 2012, but it
increased the total by 200,000 to reflect growing demand. The government plans to
supply a total of 1.5 million units of the so-called "Bogeumjari," or sweet home,
by 2018.
"The project will not only provide homes to ordinary citizens at an affordable
price, but will also help boost the economy by creating more jobs," President Lee
said after receiving a report on the housing project at a weekly meeting of the
presidential committee on emergency economic management.
The president also instructed his ministers to apply the country's latest
energy-saving technologies in building the new apartments to help lower living
and maintenance costs, according to his spokesman Lee Dong-kwan.
The ministry said those who purchase the newly built homes will be required to
live in them for a minimum of five years and will be barred from selling them for
7-10 years. The restrictions are aimed at preventing real estate speculation,
which can hike up prices and destabilize the local market.
Because greenbelts are only maintained around large cities like Seoul, homes in
these areas will be located closer to major urban centers, which could lead to a
spike in the cost of such homes.