Left Click Oh Se-hoon - Right Click Song Young-gil... The Real Estate Pledge Without Jin-young

Oh Se-hoon Emphasizes Improving Housing Quality for Vulnerable Groups Including Rental Housing
Song Young-gil Focuses on Deregulation... Clearly Distancing from Moon Administration

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] Candidates for Seoul mayor running in the June 1 local elections have placed real estate policies as their top campaign promises, marking the start of intense competition. What draws attention is the shift in real estate policy direction as the ruling and opposition parties have swapped roles. Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party candidate, has taken a 'left turn' by emphasizing improvements in the quality of rental housing, while Song Young-gil of the Democratic Party of Korea is making a 'right turn' by advocating for supply expansion and deregulation.

On the 16th, Oh appeared on CBS Radio’s "Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show" and once again stressed the need for speed control. He said, "There will be no disruption to the 53 redevelopment and reconstruction districts where work has already started," but added, "For places where additional acceleration is needed, it would be better to approach cautiously while observing housing price trends in the second half of this year."

Oh, who was elected Seoul mayor through last year’s by-election, had previously made supply expansion through deregulation of redevelopment and reconstruction a key campaign promise. Given the slow progress in redevelopment and reconstruction during the five years of the Moon Jae-in administration, his stance was to boldly accelerate the designation of new redevelopment maintenance districts.

However, in this election, Oh’s goal is only to smoothly push forward the rapid integrated planning and Moa Housing support projects that he has promoted during his tenure as mayor. Instead, he has placed emphasis on improving housing quality to help vulnerable groups, youth, and families with children. Oh stated, "I will completely break the stereotype that rental housing is of relatively poor quality," and made improving rental housing quality his first real estate pledge. Additionally, he promised to expand the size of youth housing and introduce the ‘Three Major Residential Filial Piety Houses’ that provide incentives for close-distance living between parents and children.

Conversely, Song’s real estate policy clearly leans to the right. The day before, he held a press conference at the National Assembly and announced measures to ease real estate taxation, including raising the comprehensive real estate tax threshold for multi-homeowners to 1.1 billion won. Song said, "We will decisively break away from the idea of using taxes as a punitive tool to control housing prices," and added, "We will reduce excessive tax burdens and respect the market." This stance is in direct opposition to the Moon administration’s core real estate policy of strengthening real estate taxation.

Song also addressed the Lease 3 Act, saying, "There is a high possibility that rents for new contracts in the second half of this year, the second year of enforcement, will surge," and pledged to reduce property holding taxes by more than 50% for benevolent landlords. On the 11th, he proposed bold deregulation measures such as raising the reconstruction floor area ratio to 500%, abolishing safety inspections for houses over 30 years old, increasing the loan-to-value ratio (LTV) to 80% for genuine homebuyers without homes, and postponing capital gains tax surcharges for two years.

In the market, there is an interpretation that both candidates have adopted strategies to capture ‘mountain rabbits’ instead of ‘home rabbits’?a metaphor for targeting swing voters rather than their traditional bases. An industry insider said, "The differing real estate policy directions of the ruling and opposition candidates can be interpreted as strategies to capture ‘mountain rabbits’ who are not favorable to them," adding, "Especially in Song’s case, it shows a clear break from the previous administration to win over public sentiment on real estate, which was cited as a reason for his defeat in the presidential election."