President Lee: "Pressure on Multiple-Home Owners Causes Housing Insecurity for Ordinary People?... A Miraculous Logic That Shields Them"

Real Estate Messages Continue on Social Media Over the Weekend
Challenges the Conventional Equation of "Multiple-Home Ownership and Rental Housing Business = Suppliers for Ordinary People"
"When Properties Are Sold, Jeonse and Monthly Rent Demand Also Decrease"...Housing Price Stabilization Leads to Jeonse and Monthly Rent Stabilization
Also Criticizes the Media for "Pouring Cold Water on Government Efforts"

President Lee Jaemyung refuted the claim that regulations on multiple-home owners and registered rental housing business operators reduce jeonse and monthly rental supply and thereby worsen housing conditions for ordinary people, saying, "Demand decreases just as much as supply at the same time, so it is strange to highlight only the reduction in jeonse and monthly rent supply." He once again put forward the argument that if sales by multiple-home owners increase, the number of properties for sale in the transaction market rises, housing prices stabilize, and jeonse and monthly rents stabilize together.

On this day, President Lee attached to X (formerly Twitter) a news report on the clash between the People Power Party and the Democratic Party of Korea over regulations on extending loans to multiple-home owners, and stated, "If multiple-home owners or rental business operators sell their homes, jeonse and monthly rent supply will decrease, but the number of people without homes, that is, jeonse and monthly rent demand, will also decrease by the same amount. In fact, it is consistent with logic that as the number of properties for sale in the housing transaction market increases, housing prices stabilize and, accordingly, jeonse and monthly rents also stabilize."

President Lee also asked rhetorically, "In the current situation, if we grant large-scale additional preferential treatment and the number of rental housing business operators and multiple-home owners increases significantly, will housing prices (and the rents linked to them) go up or down?" He went on to say, "The claim that putting pressure on multiple-home ownership and rental businesses will deepen housing insecurity for ordinary people due to a shortage of jeonse and monthly rental housing is a miraculous piece of logic that shields multiple-home ownership and rental housing businesses, which are major causes of rising housing prices and shortages of jeonse and monthly rentals." In doing so, he rebutted the one-sided argument that multiple-home ownership and rental housing businesses should be protected as 'suppliers for ordinary people'.

He again criticized the attitude of some media outlets in their reporting. President Lee said that he could to some extent understand politicians making far-fetched arguments for the interests of their own groups, but added, "It is hard to accept that some media outlets, which should remain neutral and adhere to fair and truthful reporting, are taking the lead in making such unreasonable claims and pouring cold water on the government's desperate efforts to stabilize the real estate market."

He continued, "As long as a small minority continues to reap illegitimate gains through all kinds of irregularities such as illegality, expediency, special favors, and injustice, while the powerless majority suffers corresponding losses, national development and the building of a community of shared happiness for the people will remain empty talk," adding, "Among the countless normalization tasks, the top priority is eradicating real estate speculation. Returning to a normal state as a country by rooting out real estate speculation is a major national task that can never be abandoned."

He added, "I earnestly ask that you cast aside small private interests that harm our community and join us on the path toward a better tomorrow for the Republic of Korea."

According to the media report attached to his social media message, the People Power Party criticized President Lee's review of regulations, saying it was "a financially dictatorial idea that not only directly infringes on property rights guaranteed by the Constitution, but also shakes the very foundation of trust that underpins financial markets." The Democratic Party of Korea countered that the People Power Party "is once again agitating the market by denouncing the will to normalize loan regulations as 'financial dictatorship'."

Loan regulations on multiple-home owners and rental housing business operators are expected to have a considerable impact, as they also cover extensions of existing loan maturities and refinancing (switching loans). The Financial Supervisory Service has formed a "Task Force (TF) on Loans to Multiple-Home Owners" and decided to conduct a full review of the status of loans by industry and type. It said it would closely examine differences in the application of supervision and regulation, including not only new loans but also maturity extensions and refinancing loans.

Earlier, on February 13, President Lee had already raised the issue by arguing that "loan extensions or refinancing that take place after the expiration of the loan period are essentially no different from new loans," putting forward the logic of "fair and equitable finance."