This study aims to examine the current land transaction permit system’s usefulness, to seek ways to improve the system, to identify problems with its implementation, and to suggest improvement plans. In our society, land is perceived to be the objec...
This study aims to examine the current land transaction permit system’s usefulness, to seek ways to improve the system, to identify problems with its implementation, and to suggest improvement plans. In our society, land is perceived to be the object of the accumulation of wealth and constitutes a large portion of property. The awareness of land as the resources of production is rather poor. This distorted perception of land has encouraged speculative investment in land and hampered the proper use of land for the benefit of society and its members. In Korea, the government-led economic policies were dominant in the 1960s and 1970s for the rapid development of economy. Such policies put top priority on economic efficiency rather than the balanced development and an efficient use of land, which led to an inefficient use of land and the perception of land as the object of speculation.
The above situations inevitably brought about the land speculation frenzy. Realizing that this speculation frenzy would wreak havoc on the entire country, the government came to step in the land transaction market. The government introduced the public concept of land ownership and highlighted social restriction of land and the duty to conform to the public welfare in exercising property rights in order to justify the government’s intervention in the land transaction market.
The first legislation of the government’s intervention in land transaction was “Act on special measures for the construction of a temporary administrative capital” enacted in 1977. However, the law was first enforced in July, 1985 when Chungnam Daedeok Science Complex Development Area (28km²) was designated as a land transaction permission area, which marked the first implementation of the land transaction permit system.
Yet, the land transaction permit system has some limitations because there is criticism that the system is conflicting with the market economy pursued by our society and it can be an unconstitutional factor.
Despite the problems and criticism, the public concept of land ownership is still regarded as a convincing way to discourage land speculation and it is an undeniable fact that this system played a part to a certain extent in tackling social problems caused by economic irrationalities and relative deprivation that arise from land speculation.
Therefore, this research sought to make clear problems of the land transaction permit system, to point out merits and demerits of the system, and to put forward ways of fixing the problems and of improving the system in ways that it is in accordance with the public concept of land ownership which formed the social consensus. As some critics argue, direct regulation of land transaction is unconstitutional to some degree. In order to solve these irrationalities and problems and to fulfill the public concept of land ownership, the policy of restraining land speculation based on indirect regulation should be put in place. Only through continuous efforts to fix the institutional and operational problems, can it be possible that desirable land transaction system is established and that the country’s small land area can be utilized efficiently and productively.
Keyword : public concept of land ownership, land transaction permit system, social consensus, indirect regulation