Hong Junpyo Says "We Must Break the Myth That Real Estate Never Fails"...Calls for a "One Home per Household" Limit

One Home Per Household, No Foreign Ownership, and Multi-Home Ownership Only for Corporations
"We Must Break the Myth That Real Estate Never Fails and Redirect Money to the Stock Market"
However, Tax Regulations Need to Be Eased

Hong Junpyo, former mayor of Daegu, has taken an extremely hard-line stance by arguing that individuals should be restricted from owning multiple homes, saying that "for industrial development to take place, money must flow into the stock market rather than into real estate." His remarks appear to signal agreement with the policy direction of President Lee Jaemyung, although he also argued that tax regulations should be eased.

Hong Joonpyo

On the 4th, Hong wrote on his Facebook page, "In our country, the housing supply per household has already exceeded 100%. Nevertheless, the reason 40% of households in major cities, including Seoul, are without a home is that the number of single-person households has increased, and there are many multi-homeowners due to real estate speculation and investment."

He went on to say, "No matter how much we increase the housing supply, only wealthy multi-homeowners will increase," adding, "Industrial development can only be achieved when money is drawn to the stock market instead of real estate, but money keeps pouring into real estate because of the myth that real estate never fails." This part can be read as Hong partially agreeing with President Lee's direction on real estate policy.

To eradicate real estate speculation, Hong argued that "home ownership should be restricted to one home per household, and foreigners should be prohibited from owning homes," and added, "Only in unavoidable cases should up to two homes per household be allowed, and all multi-home ownership should be limited to corporations, which would then be converted into rental business operators. Introducing such a system is an urgent task."

Apparently mindful that such regulations could trigger a constitutional dispute, he stressed, "In accordance with the constitutional principle that private property must be exercised in a manner compatible with the public welfare, these kinds of real estate regulations are constitutional."

However, he expressed opposition to tax regulations such as raising property holding taxes. He said, "It is essential to ease property holding taxes on single-homeowners who do not own luxury homes, to ease capital gains taxes, and to abolish the system for recapturing excess redevelopment and reconstruction profits," adding, "If you try to rein in real estate with taxes, all of that burden is passed on to jeonse tenants, which only intensifies the suffering of ordinary people."

He also proposed that housing supply should be expanded by transforming city centers into ultra-high-rise, high-density areas to increase the number of homes supplied. Hong said, "We should carry out large-scale development in northern Seoul (Gangbuk), but when undertaking redevelopment and reconstruction, we must build the educational, cultural, and medical environments up to the level of southern Seoul (Gangnam)," and argued, "The construction of new towns should be restrained because it is excessively costly compared with the indiscriminate urban sprawl it causes and the expenses required for building transportation and infrastructure."