Credit: Public domain.
On April 30, the Ministry of Land and Infrastructure 국토교통부 announced that it was revising its official 2023 statistics for the number of homes under construction. The Land Ministry said an additional 120k homes were built in 2023, 33k home constructions broke ground and 40k construction permits were issued. The official statistics had previously been short by more than 193k housing units that were either built or in the pipeline, the equivalent of missing the existence of two large suburban cities.
The Land Ministry blamed a computer system error for the inaccuracy, but many suspect foul play - after all, Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열 was elected based on grievances over real estate taxes, and much of his unpopularity comes from dissatisfied home owners seeing the value of their assets decline in the wobbly real estate market.
The Yoon administration has claimed that the low supply of housing will make a real estate crash unlikely. The sudden discovery of a massive number of new homes, fortuitously timed after the General Election 총선 on April 10, has caused analysts to suspect the government of trying to allay fears of a drop in prices due to excessive supply.