The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has disclosed the sites for new suburban development earlier this morning, in a moved aimed at easing the housing shortage in and around Seoul.
For more, we have Kim Ji-yeon on the phone.
Ji-yeon, can you give us the latest.
As expected for the government's third phase of announcing new towns and cities...
the locations included
cities in Gyeonggi-do Province, namely Namyangju, Hanam and Gwacheon... as well as Incheon's Gyeyang district.
The ministry says the developments are expected to provide a combined 155-thousand houses starting 2021.
This follows the ministry's plans in September to create up to five mini suburbs of 3-point-3-million square-meters each to alleviate the lack of housing in the Seoul metropolitan area... seen as one of the key reasons for driving up real estate prices.
The ministry also announced plans to create a public transport system connecting the new suburban areas, including the high-speed rail network the Great Train Express or GTX... to enable residents in the new suburban areas to commute to downtown Seoul in less than 30 minutes.
The ministry also said it considered whether the locations could help foster new jobs and startups during the selection process.
These locations have been mentioned by multiple local media outlets since September and since then there has been a surge in housing and land transactions in these regions. What impact will follow in response to today's announcement on the government's efforts to curb Seoul housing prices?
There have been mixed reactions.
Many see these government-led policies to be limited in curbing prices in Seoul in the long-run... as demand for housing is expected to outpace supply.
The government has been developing housing in the Seoul metropolitan area since the 1990s to cater to rising demand in the densely populated capital of around 9-point-8-million.
The first round of development created cities like Bundang and Ilsan, followed by Pangyo, Gwanggyo and Wirye in the 2000s... but housing demand in Seoul is still high.
But as you mentioned... the expectations of the new development have driven up property transactions ... while those in Seoul are showing signs of slowing down after hitting a seven-year-high during the summer... due to the government's strong measures which were released in September.
The measures include raising taxes on owners of high-price properties... and banning those with multiple homes from borrowing money for speculative buying... which is seen as the main culprit behind the country's soaring household debt... estimated at around one-point-three-trillion dollars.
Also the rate of increase in real estate prices in Seoul is expected to be limited after the Bank of Korea raised the country's main interest rate by a quarter-of-a-percentage-point to one-point-7-5 percent last month.
