Won Hee-ryong "Blaming Public Desire as Sin and Fighting the Market... The Worst Cause of Moon's Real Estate Failure"

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Confirmation Hearing

On the 2nd, Won Hee-ryong, the nominee for Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, attended the confirmation hearing held at the National Assembly and delivered an opening statement. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

Won Hee-ryong, the nominee for Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, stated, "The Moon Jae-in administration's real estate policy fought against the market and criminalized the very ordinary desires of the people and the middle class, resulting in the worst failure."

At the confirmation hearing held at the National Assembly on the 2nd, in response to a question from Song Seok-jun, a member of the People Power Party, asking him to briefly state his determination as the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Won replied, "I will do my best to ease unnecessary regulations and normalize them so that we can accelerate housing supply and housing welfare."

Won said, "I do not believe that the failure of the Moon Jae-in administration can be fixed in one shot or in a short period," adding, "While respecting diverse demands, I will implement policies with careful consideration of the lingering effects of excessive investment and speculation in the market."

Earlier, in response to a question from Lee Jong-bae asking, "House prices have risen abnormally rapidly over the past five years. What do you think is the cause of the failure of real estate policy?" Won criticized, "The repeated failure was due to the wrong goal of trying to control house prices in specific areas in the short term and reckless and unrealistic policies aimed at directly controlling prices, but the results went in the opposite direction."

He said, "The overwhelming public sentiment in the regime change was the people's response to the complete failure of the Moon Jae-in administration's real estate policy," adding, "I believe the people gave a signal that we should not fight the market and criminalize the legitimate desires of the people."

Won emphasized, "No government in any country recklessly tries to directly control house prices," adding, "It is a matter of focusing on stabilizing housing for the common people, removing obstacles since supply takes time, and releasing demand appropriately according to financial and income growth levels."

Furthermore, he said, "Rather than an arrogant approach that thinks house prices can be controlled in one shot, I will focus on how to guide the abnormal demand and supply, ultra-low interest rates, speculative psychology, and overheated expectations toward stability and trust."