President Lee's Real Estate Message on Social Media
"Politics Has Given Perks to Multi-Home Ownership; It Must Be Made Unprofitable"
Policy of Clawing Back Perks for Speculative Holdings Reaffirmed
Rebuttal to Representative Jang: "We
On the 18th, President Lee Jaemyung drew a clear line against branding the mere fact of owning multiple homes as a "social evil," while directly criticizing both the system that has made speculative and investment-oriented multiple home ownership profitable and the political establishment that has neglected and even encouraged it. He also pointed out to People Power Party leader Jang Donghyuk and the party that distorting and manipulating an opponent's arguments in order to attack them is not only ungentlemanly but also a threat to democracy.
On this day, President Lee posted a message on X (formerly Twitter) titled "The social evil is not multi-homeowners, but the politicians who made multiple homes a way to make money," writing, "Democracy is sustained by fact-based debate and compromise. Distorting facts, muddying the issues, and making irrational claims, especially distorting and manipulating an opponent's arguments to attack them, is not only ungentlemanly but also threatens democracy." He attached a news report stating that People Power Party leader Jang Donghyuk had accused the president of unconditionally defining multi-homeowners as a social evil. It was a direct rebuttal of Jang's claims.
President Lee went on, "If politicians, who have the authority to design and implement laws and institutions, fail to make 'undesirable' multiple home ownership burdensome or to prohibit it, and instead grant preferential treatment that makes it profitable and fuels speculation, that is where the real problem lies," adding, "In a capitalist market economy, one cannot denounce the mere act of owning multiple homes, as long as it does not violate laws and institutions, as a social evil." He then raised the broader issue of real estate speculation, including housing, arguing, "We must not create rules that cannot be observed, causing only the powerless and conscientious to suffer losses, while the strong and crafty break them and reap the benefits."
He again stated that he would use every policy tool available to discourage multiple home ownership. Premising his remarks on the point that owning multiple homes can be a factor driving up housing prices and exacerbating housing insecurity, President Lee said, "If it is not easy to ban it by law, then through regulations, taxes, and financial systems, we must ensure that it results in losses rather than gains, so that people will avoid owning multiple homes."
In particular, he criticized politicians who "not only leave in place preferential treatment for multiple home ownership and incite speculative buying of multiple homes, but even go so far as to engage in conflicts of interest by seeking excess profits from their own multiple properties," writing, "Condemnation should be directed not at multi-homeowners who have taken advantage of bad systems, but at the politicians who created and implemented those bad systems."
Accordingly, President Lee stressed, "The Government of Popular Sovereignty will, through the powers entrusted by the people in areas such as taxation, regulation, and finance, thoroughly claw back preferential treatment granted to 'undesirable' multiple home ownership, and will strictly impose and enforce responsibilities and burdens commensurate with owning multiple homes."
President Lee also said he wanted to add a footnote because there are so many distorted claims about multiple home ownership, stating, "Not all multiple home ownership is a problem. No one takes issue with homes that are unrelated to social problems stemming from housing shortages, such as a parents' house in the countryside, a privately owned vacation home, or a second house in an area at risk of depopulation. The government has not the slightest intention of telling people to sell such homes."
This was another rebuttal to Jang's earlier remarks in which he mentioned his elderly mother's house in the countryside and said, "Because of the president, an unfilial son weeps at the very start of the New Year." As President Lee continued to issue messages on stabilizing the real estate market throughout the Lunar New Year holiday and a political clash erupted between the ruling and opposition parties over the issue of Jang owning six homes, Jang had countered the president and the ruling party by saying he was deeply worried about his 95-year-old mother who lives in that house.
President Lee added, "Lumping together undesirable investment- and speculation-oriented multiple home ownership with legitimate multiple home ownership and drawing battle lines is a bad act that exploits law-abiding multi-homeowners."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
