Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered aides to consider eliminating or sanctioning private housing price statistics after discrepancies between government figures and independently compiled data fueled allegations of manipulation, the country’s audit agency said on April 17.
According to a report released by the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), the Moon administration tampered with official weekly housing price growth data at least 102 times between January 2018 and October 2021. The Korea Real Estate Board (REB), which compiles the official figures, came under pressure from the presidential office and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to lower published growth rates whenever the numbers appeared too high, the audit said.
The discrepancies became more apparent as KB Kookmin Bank, one of South Korea’s largest commercial lenders and a key source of private housing market data, continued publishing its own weekly housing price indices, offering a public benchmark. From late August to late October 2020, for example, the REB reported Seoul apartment prices rising by just 0.01% each week — figures adjusted under government instruction, according to the audit — while KB’s data showed increases of 0.222% to 0.382%, up to 38 times higher.
The reliability of the official REB figures was repeatedly questioned by lawmakers, civic groups and media outlets since 2018. In July 2020, then-Land Minister Kim Hyun-mee sparked controversy by telling a parliamentary session that Seoul apartment prices had risen only 11% in the three years and two months since the Moon administration took office, based on REB data.
On Oct. 16, 2020, during a live parliamentary audit session of the land ministry, Moon — reportedly watching in real time — reacted angrily to renewed criticism of the REB figures, according to internal presidential communications obtained by the BAI.
Moon then ordered aides to explore integrating KB’s statistics with the official REB data, a move interpreted as an attempt to suppress or neutralize independent data sources, the audit said. He also directed officials to expand REB’s housing market sample size to up to 100,000 cases in a bid to marginalize private indices.
Subsequently, the land ministry drafted an internal report proposing regulatory measures for private housing statistics providers, criticizing them for lacking oversight and legal accountability under the Statistics Act. The document called for introducing a certification system for private statistics and imposing fines for non-compliance.
The proposal was forwarded to the presidential office, and at an October 26, 2020 meeting, Moon again instructed aides to review possible cooperation measures with private providers deemed unreliable, the audit found.
Following Moon’s additional orders, the land ministry drew up a plan titled “Implementation Measures for Presidential Instructions,” which included establishing a “Housing Statistics Innovation Committee” to promote what it described as voluntary regulation of private data providers like KB. The plan suggested inducing the shutdown of KB’s housing data service while using the REB as the public face of the initiative to avoid the appearance of direct government interference.
While the plan to regulate or effectively shut down KB’s housing data service was ultimately abandoned due to legal obstacles, KB Kookmin Bank did suspend its weekly housing price reports in October 2020 amid public controversy, before resuming publication following accusations of government pressure.
At the time, the land ministry denied any involvement in KB’s decision to halt its statistical releases.
