Financial experts shared the view that inflation will be stabilized after peaking in the first half of next year, and housing prices will continue to decline in the first half of 2023.
Korea Housing Finance Corp. (HF) hosted the 2022 Housing Finance Conference under the theme “Our Responses to Cope” at the Westin Josun Seoul on Nov. 28.
In his opening speech, HF President Choi Joon-woo said, “There are lots of dangerous factors, such as major countries’ intensive belt-tightening, the protracted Russia-Ukraine war, and uncertainties of the domestic financial market.”
A poster to publicize the 2022 Housing Finance Conference.
President Choi said, “I hope that this will serve as an opportunity to look into the direction of housing financing through free discussions among experts from several walks of life at the time of difficulties of outside and inside management environment conditions.”
The conference is designed to explore competitive policy products, faithfully carry out the government’s policies to ramp up management of household debts, and explore ways of stabilizing the housing of low-income people and those in the vulnerable bracket, he stressed.
In his commemorative speech, Chairman Kim Joo-hyun of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), said, “The housing financing not only has a complex structure and content, but it is closely related to people’s life, so we have to lend an ear to many people’s views, and this conference is hoped to become an opportunity to suggest diverse ideas and solutions for the stability and development of the housing financing.”
FSC Chairman Kim said his commission would reflect policies by listening to many people’s views.
During the conference, an analyst said that housing prices would continue to decline in the first half of next year. This was based on the prediction that high interest rates, caused by an additional base rate hike, would continue next year, weighing down on the recovery of the national economy.
In his key-note speech, Prof. Cho Dong-chul of KDI School of Public Policy and Management said, “The factor that mostly weighs down on our economy is high interest rates, designed to address high prices, and an additional interest rate hike, expected next year, will weigh down on the recovery trend of domestic demand.”
Prof. Cho recommended that the government, companies and households focus on strengthening financial soundness.
In the first session, Kim Hyung-seok, a team chief with the Bank of Korea, gave a presentation on the outlook of the global macro economy for the 2023.
“The global economy has achieved a high growth rate thanks to the efficient international division of labor, but geopolitical fragments, such as economic sanctions, imposed in the wake of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, and deepening of U.S.-China competition over advanced industries have emerged.”
Kim called for the urgent need for collaboration among nations, saying that fragmentation has hindered the efficiency of the global division system and sparked cost push, so high price and low growth are likely to be solidified.
In the second session, Frism President Hong Choon-wook spoke on the theme “Movements and Outlooks of the Real Estate Market.”
Hong said inflation would be stabilized after peaking in the first half of next year. Hong predicted that as the composite Index is most likely to decline in a full-fledged fashion in the first half of 2023, and housing prices will continue to drop in the first half of 2023.
An HF official said, “The conference is hoped to become an opportunity of in-depth discussions into movements of the financial market, caused by the recent widening of variabilities of the global economy, and diverse views, discussed during the day will become a boon to overcome the current situation.”
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