[Anchor]

This is the third housing supply measure under the current administration. Will it actually be able to stabilize housing prices? We have invited Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yoon-duck with us to hear about the core goals and details. Welcome, Minister.

Q. Does this reflect the government's resolve to stabilize the jeonse and monthly rent market?

[Kim Yoon-duck / Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport: A very significant portion of this measure was dedicated to jeonse and monthly rent countermeasures. First, as you know, there are the 3rd-generation new towns. We need to hurry and swiftly break ground on these 3rd-generation new towns to supply housing rapidly. Another priority is to vitalize regular housing. As you are well aware, non-apartment housing such as officetels and villas has only been built at about 20% compared to previous years over the past few years, which is a quite serious situation. Therefore, we intend to push forward with the supply of these non-apartment regular housing options in the short term.]

Q. Why is new land in Seoul lacking?

[Kim Yoon-duck / Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport: I think it is not an easy issue. However, currently, Mayor Oh Se-hoon is somewhat opposed to lifting the greenbelt, so we plan to continue consultations. It is not that we will lift the greenbelt across all of Seoul; I believe that areas rated grade 1 and 2 with high conservation value should still be preserved. However, there are many areas within the greenbelt that have been considerably degraded. Therefore, we think it would be good to allow housing supply in those degraded areas.]

Q. How much faster will 3rd-generation new towns be?

[Kim Yoon-duck / Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport: Yes, the measures we have introduced this time do not involve sequential progression, but rather simultaneous execution. By completely changing our work pattern to carry out these stages concurrently where possible, we can drastically reduce the timeline for the 3rd-generation new towns. For volume that can be scheduled for groundbreaking within 2030, we are pulling it forward by about 47,000 units, and if we pull forward the volume originally planned for groundbreaking beyond 2030 to within 2030, considering the timeframe up to 2030, we can speed up and supply roughly over 80,000 units. That is the plan the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has.]

Q. Will the real estate market stabilize through this 'all-out supply effort'?

[Kim Yoon-duck / Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport: Regarding the debate over whether no government can beat the market or whether the government can beat the market, I rather think it is crucial for the market, the government, local governments, everyone in charge of supply, and the citizens to trust one another and find better directions through consultation. We will launch an all-out, pan-governmental effort, and if we combine things that can be done with a sense of speed, we can achieve better results. That is the basic stance of our Ministry.]