Per Yonhap: "South Korea's finance......>

SOUTH KOREA: Per Yonhap: "South Korea's finance ministry said Friday it will

continue to crack down on speculative home transactions in Seoul and its

neighboring areas. Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom said home prices in some

areas of the Seoul metropolitan region, which includes Gyeonggi Province and

Incheon, showed signs of a modest rise due to transactions for short-term gains.

"The government will make efforts to firmly stabilize the property market," Kim

said. Housing prices have been on the rise in recent years, spurring

policymakers to roll out a series of measures, including tightened home-backed

loan regulations and higher taxes, to cool home prices. In the toughest steps

ever to stem the rise of housing prices in Seoul and its neighboring areas,

mortgage loans have been banned for purchases of houses worth more than 1.5

billion won in areas designated as "speculative" and "overheated speculative"

since December last year."