The ruling Democratic Party, the government and the presidential office are putting their heads together to respond to the country's rising housing prices.

The three sides held a closed-door meeting Friday to address the issue as housing prices continued to skyrocket, especially in Seoul's expensive Gangnam district, despite the government's spate of antispeculation measures that took effect last year. 

A participant of the meeting told Yonhap News that although they agreed the surge in Gangnam was being driven by expectations about reconstruction of old apartment blocks, the government still needs to determine the exact causes in order to come up with efficient countermeasures.  

Land Minister Kim Hyun-mee indicated on Thursday that the government could make it more difficult to reconstruct old apartment blocks with little safety issues.