The purpose of this study was to help to increase the utilization of national property and the profits of national finance by suggesting efficient financing plans in developing and improving government-owned real estate that's not used or neglected since there were many sites and buildings that were not put to the highest and best use among the government-owned miscellaneous property.
Government-owned real estate is part of the nation's property and performs one of the four functions, which include public goods, prevention of disasters and environment goods, land banking, and national finance. Since there is no telling which of the functions is more important, the government has conducted a complete survey of national property through consigned management authorities, local governments, and each management agency and engaged in ongoing works to define the roles clearly.
The government has also selected and developed land available for development among unused or idle real estate and underused land according to the categories of government-owned real estate. But there have been only nine cases of consignment development since 2004.
In this study, the investigator sorted out and reviewed previous papers and data and examined a need for and current state of the development of government-owned real estate. Under the current law, government-owned real estate can be developed in trust development, consignment development, and investment in kind. A focus on preservation of national finance of the functions of national property, however, the development of government-owned real estate in trust development and investment in kind has existed only in name according to the concerned law and institution. Thus there were only the cases of consignment development whose financing was available in low interest.
After investigating the current state and problems of consignment development of government-owned real estate and reviewing financing methods for the sake of its vitalization, I came up with the two following suggestions:
First, consignees should find their financing sources for consignment development in sales of government-owned real estate, loans, and compensations. In raising funds for the consignment development of government-owned real estate, the Korea Asset Management Corp.(KAMCO) and the Korea Land Corp.(KLC), the consignees, have access to low interest thanks to their high credibility in the capital market as public enterprises. With a development project expanding consistently, however, they can be exposed to the exponential increase of debt.
Since it's apparent that the development of government-owned real estate is to increase the national property and its book value, it's rational to use a part or the whole of profits derived from the sales, loan and compensation of national property to develop or improve it rather than processing it in general accounting for tax purposes. In addition, it should be available for diversion or loan with low interest for the sake of ongoing development in future.
And secondly, it's required to devise diverse ways of raising funds including subordinated financing and replacement of nonperforming assets in order to activate the consignment development of national property. It usually takes maximum 30 years to pay the money invested in the consignment development of government-owned real estate. Thus there is a need to introduce companies devoted to the development of government-owned real estate or special purpose companies(SPCs) to run projects or multiple businesses for government-owned real estate in relation to the development, management, and operation of government-owned real estate in future instead of the current direct management by the consignees.
Under the financing structure of a division between investment and operation in running a project of consignment development of national property, the investors can be exposed to risk according to the operational results of the concerned project. Considering that it's likely to take a long period of time to collect the capital invested in the development of national property, they need to take into account diverse financial investors and their tendencies and risks to devise various ways including subordinated financing structure and replacement of nonperforming assets and to find some grounds to accept subordinated acquisition of national shares for excellent private business proposals. In such cases, the consignment development of national property will further vitalized.