The Land Owners and Residents Solidarity for Public Housing Development (the solidarity) held a meeting to mark its 2nd anniversary. Monthly PowerKorea sat down with the solidarity president Im Chae-gwan, Wangsook and Jinjeop new town residents committee chairman Gong Dae-seok, and Yongin Semiconductor Cluster emergency respond committee chairman Han Sang-young to hear their opinions and plans. 

At the round table discussion, they exchanged their thoughts and measures on 1) launching a national level corporate body led by the solidarity 2) revision of the Restriction of Special Taxation Act for transfer income tax reduction 3) convincing members of the solidarity to accept current market value-based assessments 4) practical relocation measures for native residents. 

Round Table Discussion panels:
Baek Jong-won: Publisher/Editor of monthly PowerKorea
Im Chae-gwan: President of the Solidarity
Gong Dae-seok: Chairman of the Wangsook and Jinjeop committee
Han Sang-young: Chairman of the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster committee
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Back: It's been 2 years the solidarity has set sail. What do you think have achieved so far?

Im: I feel I must mention first that the solidarity earned its recognition and status thanks to proactive cooperation and support of the 65 member committees and board members as well as land owners. I cannot pin point everything we've done so far but I can assure you that we did our very best in protecting rights and interests of the land owners in public housing development areas.

Gong: He's absolutely right. We have been keeping an eye on the government compensation being made in Wangsook, Namyangju and other public housing development areas nationwide including Gyosan, Haman and Gyeyang, Incheon. The members of the solidarity unanimously agree that land owners should receive all the development profits. 

Han: It is not easy to set up a goal and drive oneself forward. But we've been doing very well and I feel proud of myself as a head of the solidarity members. 

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Baek: I learned you were particularly busy last year. Could you tell me some of the notable things you achieved last year?

Im: I would like to point out that we held press conference four times. The first one was held in front of the Board of Audit and Inspection building for public inspection, the second in front of the Gwacheon Government Complex for banning pre-housing subscription, the third in the Seohyeon area for fair compensation from developers, and the fourth in front of the LH (Land and Housing Corporation) headquarters and Hanam division building for stopping the 3rd phase new town fast tract policy. As a result, we actually drew revision of the land compensation guidelines stated on the paper, and we also brought up an advance legislation notice that is to reduce the space per house to 400㎡ from 1,000㎡. It was our such great achievements I must say.

Gong: I think we did great achievements that we actually have changed government departments point of view on fair compensation on land owners side. 

Han: It is important to know that it has been common practice the government and the developers have bought the land at the cheapest price possible and harvested the profits on their own. So the role of the solidarity is meaningful that we now have accumulated data and shared the information and spread the campaign for fair and transparent compensation among the land owners of the affected areas.

Im: The words fair and transparent are very important because they are the basis for rational assessment and compensation. It is vital for assessors to be independent and autonomous so that they are not affected by either the government or land owners. We recently have received a letter from LH stating that it does not carry out any form of pre-assessment that can affect the assessors. So we will keep an eye on it.

Gong: Last year, we were stunned by the Citizen's Coalition for Economic Justice's report that LH had swindled out of around 8 trillion won (7.1 billion USD) from the Pangyo development area alone. It means that LH bought the land the cheapest possible and made enormous profit out of it: the profit that must be fairly shared with land owners. 

Han: That is why fair and transparent assessment and compensation is important. Through this, we can prevent any disagreeable activities such as collusion, price-fixing, threatening or conciliation. So we already have built our own assessment and compensation road-map and strategy. 

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Baek: What are your next movements?

Im: We held a press conference on February 3. We have demanded the government and LH 5 things: 1) stopping the fast tract policy 2) withdrawal of owner-occupation in 3rd phase new town 3) abolishing pre-assessment and collusion 4) opening information in advance and fair compensation process 5) expansion of transfer income tax reduction on compulsory acquisition of land. We are determined to make our demands met and practiced by government and LH. 

Han: The current tax law takes 20 to 40% transfer tax. It means that the land owners in the public housing development areas have nothing much left after paying this ridiculous amount of tax. Even in case of cash compensation, the percentage of tax is still 10% which is way too high.

Gong: I absolutely agree with Han. With the compensation money and after tax, I wonder whether the native land owners can actually buy a house! In other words, transfer tax system must be revised when it comes to land owners affected by public housing development.

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Baek: It sounds like you made substantial results last year. What are you focusing on this year?

Im: For the last 2 years, the government made profits by ignoring land owners rights on fair and transparent compensation which I think is against the Constitution that protects ownership rights of private properties. We have already brought up 5 demands and made the government and LH know. So we will keep working hard whether our demands are met and keep a close eye on how they are doing. 

Gong: It is necessary for both government and lawmakers to start revision of the Restriction of Special Taxation Act as soon as possible so that the noise and conflicts between the government bodies and land owners over fair compensation can be rationally settled. 

Han: I would like to mention that around 1 million land owners are estimated to be affected by government's compulsory land acquisition. As long as the compensation is made fair and transparent I don't think there will be such a fuss like this.

Baek: Well, I have to congratulate the 2nd birthday of the solidarity and I hope to see you keep working hard. PowerKorea

강진성 기자  wlstjdxp@naver.com