Lee Heon-wook, the head of the Korea Real Estate Agency, outlined plans to expand the agency into a data hub for balanced national development during his first press conference since taking office four months ago.
At a luncheon meeting with the press corps near the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in Sejong City on June 18, Lee stated, "We will develop the agency into a data hub that supports solutions to national issues using real estate data," adding, "We have already begun research to present the most innovative and livable cities through data."
Lee emphasized that the essence of South Korea's real estate issues lies in urban problems, noting, "Without addressing spatial structure issues, which are less discussed compared to finance and taxation, real estate problems cannot be resolved." He pointed out that the urban population, which was only 14.5% at the time of liberation, has now reached 92%, asserting, "Ultimately, good cities lead to good real estate and good housing."
He also proposed to create a data-driven representation of cities through indicators based on the agency's data. "The Korea Real Estate Agency is the only institution capable of accurately representing cities like Seoul, Daegu, and Ulsan with data," he said, adding that the agency aims to guide policy directions by establishing criteria for the world's most innovative and livable cities through data. He expressed a willingness to collaborate with the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, stating, "While they can perform better as a think tank, the Korea Real Estate Agency, as the institution with the most data, can provide data-driven guidance for government policies."
In line with this initiative, the Korea Real Estate Agency has established a task force to review new projects and areas for collaboration. Additionally, the agency plans to hold a public idea contest to gather opinions from citizens on balanced national development and incorporate these ideas into related plans.
Regarding the suggestion to adjust the frequency of weekly apartment price trend statistics to monthly or biweekly, Lee acknowledged, "I recognize that there are almost no cases globally where official national statistics are released weekly," but added, "As these are officially sanctioned statistics, we cannot arbitrarily change them, and we will comply with any policy changes that arise."
He distanced himself from the controversy over statistical distortions during the previous Moon Jae-in administration, stating, "I have been informed that we have carried out our duties diligently within an appropriate scope," and noted that all seven reform measures established at that time have been implemented, with a system in place for internal and external verification to make statistical distortions due to external pressure structurally impossible.
In response to concerns about the gap between the agency's official property prices and actual transaction prices, he explained, "The realization rate is determined by law and is not set by the Korea Real Estate Agency. Using transaction prices that include abnormal transactions as a tax standard may be unfair," while promising to enhance the expertise of investigators and continuously improve survey methods to address equity issues in official prices.
On the topic of enhancing statistical indicators in the rental market, he stated, "We are focusing on building a system to prevent rental fraud and are also using artificial intelligence (AI) for price assessments to improve the accuracy of statistics." He acknowledged the need for stronger monthly rental statistics but maintained a cautious stance, saying, "We recognize the necessity of publishing monthly rental statistics, but we need to explore various methods for doing so."
Regarding the newly established REITs support center, he noted, "REITs involve financial aspects, and there are limitations to relying solely on real estate data," emphasizing the importance of recruiting recognized professionals from the market through external recruitment to advance the Korean REITs market.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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