▲ Seedlings are planted at the site in Guarim-dong, Siheung-si, a land suspected of buying LH employees.
In Siheung District, Gwangmyeong, where allegations of speculation by employees of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) were raised, 4 out of 10 buyers of rice paddies and fields in the past year were found to be from Seoul.
Yonhap News confirmed the registered copies of 36 previous and reply transactions that were traded at a price of 1 billion won or more over the past year in the land transaction permission zone designated in the planned area of Gwangmyeong Siheung New Town and its periphery, about 38% of 89 buyers. 34 people were counted as residents of Seoul.
There were 28 residents of Gwangmyeong City and Siheung City, and 27 other residents.
A paddy field of over 3,000 square meters in Okgil-dong, Gwangmyeong-si was sold to six Seoul citizens for 1.5 billion won in August last year.
All six people lived in Seoul.
However, two of the buyers of this rice field were found to have purchased a nearby rice field together with three other residents in July of last year, a month ago.
In June of last year, a field of over 4,000 square meters in Guarim-dong, Siheung-si, was sold to three Seoul residents for 1.8 billion won.
There may be cases in which rice fields outside the metropolitan area were purchased to enjoy rural life such as a weekend farm without knowing the development information, but the possibility that the purchase was made with knowledge of the investment information in advance cannot be ruled out.
As in the case of LH employees, not only land compensation but also farming compensation is being sought, and seedlings are closely planted in the planned development site.
The goal is that if you plant seedlings, the reward is based on the tree that has grown up.
Experts point to the need to improve the way new cities are developed.
Kim Jin-yu, a professor at the Department of Urban Transportation Engineering at Gyeonggi University, criticized, "With the current method in which the proposed district for housing site development is suddenly announced, people with good access to information have no choice but to make a huge amount of money."
Therefore, he said, "We need to develop housing sites in the long term through land planning or urban planning, and implement policies to suppress speculation accordingly."
Kim In-man, director of the Real Estate Economic Research Institute, suggested that "for example, land compensation needs to be changed in a way that differentiates the compensation level based on two years before the designation, so that speculative demand can be prevented."
(Photo = Reporters of the National Company, Yonhap News)