Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo criticized Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s announcement on the “re-designation of land transaction permit zones,” questioning, “Isn’t it unconstitutional to apply a system meant for raw land to apartment transactions?”
Mayor Hong remarked on Facebook, “The original purpose of the land transaction permit system is to prevent reckless land speculation, and imposing a permit system even on the free sale of apartments just because they are built on land contradicts its intent and the constitutional liberal-democratic economic order.”
He added, “Various legal measures to curb apartment speculation are already in place,” and expressed hope for the land transaction permit system to return to its fundamental function.
Last month, Mayor Oh announced the sudden removal of Jamsil, Samseong, Daechi, and Cheongdam areas in Seoul from the list of land transaction permit zones. However, after noticing the rise in housing prices spreading beyond the three Gangnam districts to other areas, he suddenly decided yesterday to re-designate all apartments in Gangnam 3 Districts and Yongsan District as land transaction permit zones.