Fierce Criticism of Presidential Office Senior Officials' Real Estate Holdings
"Ordinary People Suffer Under Regulations While Aides Are Real Estate Tycoons"
On the 7th, the People Power Party criticized the Lee Jaemyung administration's real estate policy stance, saying it "has gone beyond merely flip-flopping and has reached the peak of blatant hypocrisy that deceives the public."
Choi Sujin, Chief Floor Spokesperson of the People Power Party, criticized the Lee Jaemyung administration's real estate policy stance.
In a commentary released the same day, Choi Sujin, Senior Floor Spokesperson of the People Power Party, referred to the presidential office's senior officials' asset disclosures made public in September last year, pointing out that "11 out of 31 key aides were found to have their residences in the three Gangnam districts, and 12 were classified as real estate asset holders, either as owners of multiple homes or as commercial building landlords." She then sarcastically added, "It is questionable whether the presidential office has been taken over by the 'devils' who are busy inflating their own assets."
Choi also criticized President Lee Jaemyung for changing course on real estate between his campaign pledges and his policy direction after taking office. She said, "During the campaign, President Lee Jaemyung begged for votes by saying, 'I will cut real estate taxes and increase supply,' and 'I will defer the heavy capital gains tax on owners of multiple homes.' Yet after coming to power, without any proper explanation, he has been strangling the public by simply repeating the previous administration's policies."
Along with this, Choi pointed to the apartment in Bundang owned by the president, saying, "He promised to sell the Bundang apartment he purchased in 1998, but it has now been designated as a leading reconstruction district and has become a symbol of unearned income exceeding 2.7 billion won." She continued, "While he reaps huge capital gains from a home he does not even live in, he tells the public to sell their homes and buy stocks. Is he telling ordinary people to put their assets into a highly volatile market where the sidecar has been triggered three times in just one week?"
Choi went on to say, "Just as Democratic Party lawmakers, who insist on keeping their own homes by invoking 'my father-in-law's dying wish,' have their own circumstances, so do ordinary citizens," and urged, "Stop the cowardly politics of being lenient toward your aides while branding only the public as speculators and demonizing them." This appears to be aimed at Assemblywoman Park Junghyun, who owns two homes in her constituencies of Daedeok in Daejeon and Osan in Gyeonggi Province. Park has stated, "My father-in-law bequeathed me a detached house in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, telling me not to sell it," and has declared that she will not put it on the market.
Choi further argued, "The root cause of the suffering now endured by low-income households without homes is the administration's tyrannical '10·15 loan regulations,'" adding, "While newlyweds and large families who win housing subscription lotteries cannot move in because their loans are blocked, the president is idly playing around on social media, shifting the blame solely onto the previous government and the market, all the while turning a blind eye to this desperate reality."
Choi continued, "Where has the mindset gone that once said, 'If the capital gains tax is 80%, I will not sell my house and will just wait for a change of government'?" She stressed, "Lead by example, starting with yourself and your aides. Immediately scrap the real estate regulatory measures that are driving ordinary people to the edge of a cliff and draw up a supply plan. You cannot stabilize the market through intimidation."
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