President Lee Targets Jang Donghyuk: "Does the People Power Party Believe 'Privileges for Multiple-Home Owners' Should Be Maintained?"

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Again stresses withdrawal of tax and financial benefits for multiple-home owners

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President Lee Jaemyung reiterated that housing is fundamentally a means of residence and stressed again that unjust tax, financial, and regulatory privileges granted to multiple-home owners must be withdrawn. He then publicly questioned the People Power Party, which has been continuing its criticism of real estate policy, asking whether they believe that multiple-home owners should not be regulated but protected, and that their existing financial and tax privileges should be maintained.

Yonhap News Agency

On the 16th, President Lee wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "If the practice of buying up homes that one will not even live in leads to a shortage of residential housing, and to absurd surges in housing prices and in lump-sum and monthly rents, thereby causing all kinds of social problems such as people shunning marriage and childbirth and a decline in industrial competitiveness, then even if we may not be able to denounce investment- and speculation-oriented multiple-home ownership as illegal or gravely immoral, it is certainly not something that should be praised or encouraged." He also shared an article carrying the position of the People Power Party, which had issued a commentary to the effect of "Sell your Bundang apartment and buy stocks" directed at him.

He went on, "It is clear that the negative effects outweigh the positive ones, so as a matter of national policy, the unjust privileges granted to multiple-home owners in areas such as taxation, finance, and regulation must be withdrawn," adding, "It is fair and in line with common sense to impose a certain level of responsibility and burden for the social problems created by multiple-home ownership."

He also conveyed his view that it is desirable, as much as possible, for the public sector to take charge of housing rentals. President Lee said, "Some argue that since multiple-home ownership supplies rental properties, if rentals decrease due to the sale of multiple homes, lump-sum and monthly rents will rise, so multiple-home ownership should be encouraged and protected, and even granted benefits in terms of taxation and finance," and continued, "First of all, if multiple-home ownership decreases, the number of people without homes, that is, rental demand, will decrease by that much, so this argument is unreasonable. Considering the national importance and public nature of housing issues, it would be desirable for the public sector to take charge of housing rentals as much as possible."

This message also included a direct rebuttal to the People Power Party's criticism of real estate policy. On the previous day, the 15th, the Democratic Party of Korea and the People Power Party clashed over President Lee's home ownership and allegations that the People Power Party leadership owns multiple homes. The People Power Party mentioned the apartment in Bundang, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province owned by President Lee and criticized him in the sense of "President Lee himself should immediately sell his apartment and invest in stock funds." The Democratic Party hit back by highlighting that People Power Party leader Jang Donghyuk owns six homes, saying it was "a case of a multiple-home owner feeling guilty."

In response, President Lee said, "Politics is about adjusting the interests among the people and competing over who can better work for the greatest happiness of the majority, in order to be entrusted by the people with the power to run the country," and argued, "In politics, we must engage in sufficient deliberation to adjust interests and opinions, respect minority views, and at the same time be careful not to let it degenerate into minority dictatorship. The starting point of any debate must always be truth (facts) and rationality." He added, "We must not forget that the people are a collective intelligence that surpasses most political commentators."

He continued, "Does the People Power Party think that, in the Republic of Korea, where real estate speculation factors are high due to the small land area combined with concentration in the Seoul metropolitan area, it is desirable for a minority to hold multiple homes for investment and speculation? Surely they are not that lacking in common sense," and pointed out, "It is truly regrettable that the People Power Party, which cannot be unaware of the injustice of privileges for multiple-home ownership that causes serious harm, the need to abolish such privileges, and even the need to strengthen regulations, is raising what are almost quarrelsome criticisms for reasons that are hard to understand, against policies to curb multiple-home ownership aimed at stabilizing housing for low-income people and young people without homes and eradicating ruinous real estate speculation."

Wrapping up his post, President Lee said, "There was something I had wanted to quietly ask Representative Jang if he came to the presidential office, and I will take this opportunity to ask," and continued, "Does the People Power Party believe that multiple-home owners should not be regulated, and that they should be protected and their existing privileges in areas such as finance and taxation should be maintained?" Meanwhile, on the 14th, President Lee also wrote on X, "We are only pursuing the normalization of the real estate market, and we are not forcing anyone to sell their home," adding, "We are trying to withdraw unjust privileges granted to investment and speculation and to impose corresponding burdens."