President Lee questions "3 billion won per pyeong for an apartment... is that reasonable, like Japan in the past"

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\r\n[Financial News] President Lee Jae-myung said on the 6th, "Does it make any sense that an apartment costs 3 billion won per pyeong?" He continued, "If, for some special reason, an individual wants to pay 20 billion won or even 200 billion won for a place and someone is willing to sell, I have nothing to say about that. But if prices across the board all rise toward that level on average, then we will not be able to avoid going through something like Japan’s 'lost 20 years.'"
President Lee made these remarks at the "Listening to the Heart of South Gyeongsang" town hall meeting held at the Changwon Convention Center in South Gyeongsang Province. "These days Seoul and the greater Seoul metropolitan area are in an uproar over housing prices," he noted. "I am having a hard time because of that issue right now. The level of resistance is no joke."
President Lee went on, "At some point there has to be an end. Prices cannot rise forever up to the sky." He added, "Anything that has deviated from normal will inevitably return to its proper place someday—that is how the world works. But when that happens, there is enormous pain, and many problems arise in the process."
He then asked, "Why has it come to this? Fundamentally, it is because of the concentration in the capital region." He pointed out, "Even now, the population in the greater Seoul metropolitan area keeps growing. In this region as well, young people leaving for Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and Incheon is causing problems for local communities."
In particular, President Lee said, "If there were good jobs here and people could build families and live happily, why would they leave? They leave because that is difficult." He continued, "When I talk to business leaders and say, 'We will actively support your business activities, so please move to the provinces, create jobs there, and help local areas thrive together,' they answer, 'If we could find workers there, why wouldn’t we go? Land is cheaper and it is more convenient, but the problem is there are no people.'"
He added, "People leave because there are no jobs, and companies cannot come because there are no people. Who can solve this problem? This is what politics is for, and what politics must do." Referring to his attendance earlier that morning at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Southern Inland Railway, he said, "I mentioned there that balanced national development in South Korea is now a strategy for survival."
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cjk@fnnews.com Choi Jong-geun, Sung Seok-woo Reporter