Discussion about public land ownership is picking up speed in the wake of the release of Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs data showing how seriously imbalanced land ownership is in Korea. The government has reportedly commenced on the work of drafting strong land price measures that based largely on the reintroduction of the "public ownership of land" (toji gonggaenyeom) such as claiming profit from development near official development areas.
The fact of the matter is that there is strong opposition to the adoption of a concept of public land ownership. A large part of the problem is that the limits on land ownership, tax for excessive land ownership, and special restrictions on development that were adopted during the government of Roh Tae Woo were one after another either abolished or taken to the Constitutional Court and found unconstitutional. That is why you hear a lot of people displeased right now, asking "why dig up 'public ownership of land' out of its grave when it has already been declared dead?".
But with the effects of nationally ruinous speculative land investment going beyond worsening the disparity between rich and poor and exacerbating the housing shortage and actually threatening the whole economy, adopting a concept of "public ownership of land" is inevitable and it would be difficult to argue against that. Indeed, when the Constitutional Court rejected earlier measures its judgment did not reject the actual idea that the value of land, which is a public asset, should be shared by everyone.
The question is just how new and effective the government's measures are going to be. The painful lesson from the past is that it is better to leave the problem alone than to implement a haphazard program because of hurried ambition. Frankly you wonder if the government has what it takes to do it right, because it has issued plenty of real estate policies only to have each one end up having the opposite of the desired effect. That is why it is accused of "overdosing on the ambition by going after land prices when it can't even stabilize the price of a single home." One hopes that at least this time around the government produces a realistic policy that is strong and has enough market confidence to put the doubts to rest. It should of course be careful about the details so that its policy does not face accusations of being unconstitutional while the legislation is still being drafted. On hopes to see hard work from the government on this issue.
The Hankyoreh, 18 July 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Implement Real 'Public Ownership of Land' |
