(Adds details of effects)
SEOUL, March 22 (Reuters) - South Korea has sharply
lowered official reference housing prices for this year, which
will result in a large fall in taxes for homeowners, as the
government has been trying to put a floor under slumping
property prices.
The finance ministry said on Wednesday the reference prices,
on which property taxes are calculated, have been set 18.6%
lower than last year on average - the fastest drop since the
system was introduced in 2005.
As a result, property taxes on homeowners will likely be
reduced by between 29% and 39% from last year, the ministry
said, citing its simulation for single home-owners. Multiple
home-owners usually pay heavier taxes.
The ministry said the drop in reference prices was in part a
result of the recently falling housing prices, which official
data shows have fallen for the past nine consecutive months amid
rising inflation rates and a cooling economy.
The government has taken a series of measures to tame the
pace of declines in housing prices to avert a hard landing of
the property market.
(Reporting by Choonsik Yoo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and
Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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