Winners of pre-subscriptions for profit-sharing housing units supplied in the Seoul metropolitan area, including Goyang Changneung, held a rally today (July 18) to demand that the government fulfill the financial conditions presented at the time of their pre-subscription.

The Emergency Committee for New:Home Shared and Selective Type Pre-subscription held the rally in front of the National Assembly in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, demanding that the government apply the dedicated mortgage terms as stated in the pre-subscription announcement from December 2022.

The Goyang Changneung S-3 block, part of the 3rd generation new towns, is a profit-sharing housing model where the homeowner receives only 70% of the capital gains when selling the property later, with the remaining 30% shared with the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH).

In relation to this, a dedicated mortgage was to be provided to pre-subscription applicants, featuring a fixed interest rate of 1.9–3.0% and support for up to 80% of the home price for a maximum of 40 years.

However, in line with the current administration's policy to manage the scale of household debt, the official resident recruitment announcement for the main subscription on June 30 excluded details regarding the dedicated mortgage and only included information related to the Didimdol loan.

The pre-subscription winners strongly protested, stating that they had participated in the subscription based on the government's offer of a dedicated mortgage in exchange for accepting the condition that the public sector would reclaim up to 30% of the capital gains, only to have that promise broken overnight.

The pre-subscription winners believe that the same issue could arise during future main subscriptions for profit-sharing blocks in other public housing districts in the metropolitan area, including Namyangju Wangsuk, Hanam Gyosan, and Gunpo Daeyami, in addition to Goyang Changneung.

As the controversy grew, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport stepped in to calm the situation, stating that it would maintain the dedicated mortgage loan support as originally planned and push for an agreement on collective loans for intermediate payments in the first quarter of next year.

Participants at the rally said, "We are not people who subscribed for speculation, and we are not asking for new benefits or the creation of a system that did not exist." They added, "We accepted the condition of sharing capital gains with the public and planned our lives based on the mortgage we were promised, but the mortgage disappeared in the main subscription."

The participants urged, "The Goyang Changneung S-4 block must not become the first case where the government breaks its promise to the public. It should not become a policy where citizens who trust the government suffer losses and those who waited while believing in those promises end up regretting it." They concluded, "The citizens will fulfill their obligations, so the government must also keep its promise."

(Photo: Provided by reader, Yonhap News)