President Lee: "If multiple-home owners hold out, policy has failed... No market can defeat the government"

President Lee Jae-myung delivered a strongly worded message on the 13th, writing on social media, "If multiple-home owners pass up this excellent opportunity for capital gains tax relief and succeed by simply holding out, it would mean that this government's real estate policy to curb ruinous property speculation has failed."
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) the same day, President Lee wrote, "We cannot allow this country—where everything from the normalization of our chronically undervalued stock market to the recovery of the economy and a just social order is gradually returning to normal—to keep backsliding toward a 'lost 30 years' only in the area of real estate."
On policy tools, he stated, "If policymakers have the will and public support is secured, then through powers over regulation, taxation, and the control of supply and demand, it is possible not only to solve problems but also to steer the situation toward a desirable state." He went on, "The top priority task for the Republic of Korea to survive is to normalize everything that is abnormal," adding, "We already know what will happen to the country if we leave a runaway real estate market charging toward a lost 20 years unchecked."
President Lee particularly stressed, "There is no government that can beat the market, but there is also no market that can beat the government," and said, "The counterweight that gives meaning to this seemingly contradictory statement is the normality of the situation and the legitimacy of government policy." He then asked rhetorically, "Are you still unsure how to judge this? Is the market normal right now? Is the government acting unjustly?"
In the same post, President Lee shared a news article analyzing the share and expiring volume of registered rental housing units in Seoul located in the three Gangnam districts.
According to the article, as of last September there were 56,717 registered rental apartment units in Seoul, of which 8,390 were concentrated in Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa Districts. This put the share of the three Gangnam districts at about 15%. More than 25,000 units in Seoul are expected to become eligible for sale this year as their mandatory rental periods expire, and over 4,000 of those are in the three Gangnam districts. With the possibility of reduced tax benefits for multi-home rental business operators being discussed, the key question for the market is whether these units will actually come onto the market as listings.
west@fnnews.com Seong Seok-woo Reporter