By Bae Keun-min
Staff Reporter

Property and housing trading around the likely site for the new administrative capital will be heavily restricted in anticipation of increased speculation in the area.

The Presidential Committee on Administrative Capital Relocation on Monday announced that the Yongi-Kongju area in South Chungchong Province, the favored candidate site for the new administrative capital, and the adjacent areas of Nonsan and Kyeryong will be designated as so-called overheated speculation regions, meaning property transactions will be restricted through strict government monitoring.

The committee unveiled anti-speculation measures for the regions due to the real estate speculation that has been raging there.

In overheated speculation zones, sales of the rights to move into new apartment units are restricted until after the new units are registered. Construction must be complete before a unit can be registered.

Furthermore, the government will also designate the regions as housing speculation zones, meaning taxes on capital gains through apartment trading are levied based on actual sales prices. The designation is usually given when market prices rise faster than the rate of inflation.

The government plans to closely monitor the inflow of applicants registering to receive advance rights to move into new apartments to be constructed in the new administrative candidate sites.

Also, it will only give priority to applicants who have lived in the regions for more than one year before the government announcement concerning the housing development plan.

The government suspects a number of speculators are only moving their place of residence to the sites on paper in order to receive priority in the purchase of new apartments in the areas.

The committee also said the National Tax Service has been tracing the income source of 728 suspicious investors in the Yongi-Kongju region.

kenbae@koreatimes.co.kr