By Bae Keun-min
Staff reporter

A total of 500,000 apartments to be leased on 10 year contract will be constructed over the next decade.

About 40 percent of the public home lots will be allocated to the long-term lease apartments and public lease apartments.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MOCT) announced on Friday the plan will be implemented from next year following revision of the regulation.

According to the revision, the 10-year lease apartments cannot be converted into general apartments during the contract period.

Eligible for the leased apartments are first-time buyers who have opened accounts for housing subscriptions as well as those with monthly incomes of 1.9-2.56 million won, which accounts for 20 percent of the 14 million households across the country, according to the MOCT.

``The proportion of the long-term lease apartments will be increased from the current 3.4 percent to 15 percent of the total households by 2012,’’ an MOCT official said.

New cities such as Paju, Kimpo and Pangyo will also set up the 10-year lease apartments while 40 percent of the public home lots will be allocated to the long-term lease apartments, the MOCT said.

Builders of the apartments will be duly compensated, the MOCT said. If owners of the leased apartments are found to be unqualified in the regular inspection, they will have their contracts cancelled according to the ministry.

kenbae@koreatimes.co.kr