S. Korea to build 5 mln new homes by 2018

SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will provide 5 million houses over the next decade in an effort to meet rising demand and stabilize soaring property prices, the government said Friday.
Of the home-supply plan, 300,000 houses will be built in Seoul and its
surrounding metropolitan area every year until 2018, while 200,000 houses will be
constructed in provincial areas over the same period, the Ministry of Land,
Transport and Maritime Affairs said in a statement.
The ministry said that it will also invest 120 trillion won (US$105.5 billion)
over the next decade to provide 1.5 million houses at "affordable prices"
exclusively for low-income and underprivileged people.
South Korea has a relatively high home-supply ratio but rampant property
speculation has been making it tough for low-income and underprivileged people to
purchase their own houses amid skyrocketing property prices.
As of the end of 2007, the nation's home-supply ratio stood at 99.8 percent and
the ministry forecast that the mid-term construction project, if achieved, will
raise it to 107.1 percent by the end of 2018.
To secure needed land for house construction, meanwhile, the ministry said that
it plans to lift a ban on development in about 100 square kilometers of "green
belt" land designated for environment protection.