The Korea Real Estate Agency emphasized the significance of its weekly apartment price trend statistics, which have faced scrutiny over manipulation and accuracy. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to finalize the direction of statistical reforms after gathering additional opinions from experts and the public.
During a National Assembly audit on October 15, Lee Heon-wook, head of the Korea Real Estate Agency, responded to a question from Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Yong-seon regarding the reliability of the weekly apartment price statistics. He stated, "When looking at the long-term trend, we find the statistics to be statistically significant compared to the actual transaction price index."
However, he acknowledged the limitations of the weekly statistics, noting that surveyor judgment inevitably plays a role in the process. "Since there are not enough housing transactions each week, surveyors must exercise their professional judgment to determine weekly prices," he explained.
Lee added, "We are continuously improving and strengthening external verification. We are working to enhance our statistical methods internally and are providing AI-based price comparisons."
The weekly apartment price trends are a nationally approved statistic published every Thursday, reflecting changes in sales and rental prices across the country.
Concerns about the independence and reliability of these statistics resurfaced after the Board of Audit and Inspection released findings of alleged statistical manipulation during the Moon Jae-in administration in April of last year.
Following this, the Ministry of Land announced during last year's audit that it would maintain the weekly statistics while considering options to suspend publication or adjust the reporting frequency to biweekly.
The ministry has commissioned related research from the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements. Proposed reform options discussed so far include maintaining weekly surveys while suspending public announcements, switching to biweekly surveys, and developing alternative indicators. However, a specific reform direction has yet to be determined.
Kim Young-guk, head of the Housing and Land Office at the Ministry of Land, stated during the audit, "Many experts believe that adjustments to the weekly statistics are necessary due to their limitations. However, surveys indicate that the public and real estate agents want these statistics to be published."
He added, "We plan to gather additional opinions on the research results from the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements and will announce the reform plan once the feedback is collected."
Given the high utilization of the weekly statistics, there remains a challenge to balance the accuracy of the surveys with public access to information during the reform process. Adjusting the publication frequency will also require consideration of its impact on market information dissemination.
Meanwhile, Lee refrained from commenting on the outlook for the housing market in the Seoul area, where apartment prices have risen for 87 consecutive weeks. He remarked, "As the Korea Real Estate Agency, we are responsible for producing nationally approved weekly and monthly statistics, and I believe it is inappropriate to publicly comment on the outlook."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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