Initial selling prices for new apartments in Jeju City are reaching record prices. The province is an attempt to set the price cap on initial housing prices and ban the resale of purchase rights to prevent speculation.
Todd Thacker reports.

Report
This is a 200-unit apartment complex under construction in a busy area of (연동) Yeon-dong, Jeju City.

The initial price is between 26 million and 29 million won per 3.3 square meters.
That’s a provincial record.

The polarization of Jeju apartment prices has intensified.
Some 1,200 units in Jeju are empty, while apartment prices in (연동) Yeon-dong and (노형동) Nohyeong-dong skyrocket.
Prices in surrounding areas are also affected by this phenomenon.
The homeownership dreams of Jeju’s middle class are rapidly evaporating as real estate speculators fuel soaring house prices.

The province is again looking at legislative options to curtail speculation and stabilize local housing prices. It is seeking help from Seoul through an amendment to the Jeju Special Act to set price caps on newly built dwellings and to ban the resale of purchase rights.


The province is considering making a request to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport to designate Jeju an Overheated Speculation District and Speculation Monitoring Area. These are zones where strict mortgage loan regulations and higher real estate tax rates are applied.


Meanwhile, the province is planning to control regions in which initial apartment prices are set relatively high to slow soaring home prices in the short term.


The province is also introducing a “one strike and you’re out” policy for violations that disrupt the local housing market. These include the illegal winning of apartment lottery contracts and false offerings for sale.

Back in 2016, the province made a similar attempt to control the local real estate market through an amendment to the Jeju Special Act, but Seoul ultimately rejected the measure.
Given that Jeju’s pricey house market is already rife with speculators, some say the latest provincial initiative is more like “closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.”

Todd Thacker, KCTV