The price per square foot has risen from $2 to $5.25 in four months. ●
Local newspaper: “There are lands full of landmines that have increased by 100%.
The hope for a peace agreement between the United States and North Korea is encouraging the boldest among investors to make the ultimate bet on peace: they are buying land in South Korea near the heavily fortified demilitarized zone between the two Koreas. According to real estate agents, buyers are focusing on farmland near the city of Paju, which is controlled by South Korean civil authorities. The region, nearly 1,368 square kilometers (528 square miles), is a sparsely populated strip dotted with watchtowers, tank traps, and barbed wire, and is located a few kilometers south of the demilitarized zone. It is a gated residential complex, controlled by the South Korean military.
In February, the nominal price of farmland in the region was about $2 per square foot, but in May, following the historic summit between the South and North Korean leaders, the price surged to $5.25 per square foot, according to Kim Yun-sik, a real estate agent in Monsan, near the regulated zone. The price of land near the Durasan station – the last station on the Korean side of the border – rose to nearly $13 per square foot. “There are lands full of mines that have a value of 100 percent,” Kim said. “It’s a bit extreme.”
A buyer, a retiree who refused to reveal his full name, said he has been buying land in a civilian-controlled area since 2013 and that he had purchased another piece of land near the village of Panmunjom, where the two Koreas signed an armistice agreement in 1953, The leaders of the Koreas.
“I think the future of the peninsula can be very different from what we see now,” the buyer said. “If peace prevails, Panmunjom will become a hot tourist destination.” Following the warming of relations between the two Koreas, the volume of sales in the area around the city of Paju tripled in a few weeks, according to data from the Paju municipality. The number of transactions in the civil-controlled area managed by the Paju municipality rose from 49 in February to 15 in March, according to official figures. In April – the month of the summit between the two Koreas – the number of transactions continued to rise to 173, and in May it reached 194. At the end of last month, President Donald Trump canceled the planned summit with Kim Jong-un, and interest in land purchases suddenly dried up, said Jung Kyung-chae, a real estate agent in Monsan.
In the demilitarized zone, there have been countless military confrontations, and forces from both sides have always clashed, and in 2015, North Korea fired shells at the southern side of the demilitarized zone. Koreans have been exploited in the demilitarized zone and have become disabled. The civil-controlled area has 800,000 mines, according to the Korea Mine Clearance Institute. There are also other obstacles to the development of the region.
The land rush is on in Korea itself; should we also consider the lands in Israel located at the borders of our country?
In a period of peace, or future agreement, would these lands also greatly increase in value?
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