Rent and lease market crisis turns into a blame game: Jung Won-oh says it is Oh Se-hoon’s fault, Oh Se-hoon blames Park Won-soon

Jung Won-oh of the Democratic Party of Korea and Oh Se-hoon of the PPP sparred over the rent and lease crisis at a Kwanhun Club forum on the 20th. On the same day, during a National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee hearing on missing rebar in the Samseong station section of GTX-A, the ruling and opposition parties also engaged in a proxy battle while speaking for the two candidates.
At the forum, the two candidates each laid out their views on the rent and lease market crunch. Jung targeted Oh’s four years in office, while Oh attacked the failures of former Seoul mayor Park Won-soon, who was from the Democratic Party of Korea, and the Lee Jae-myung administration.
Jung said, "Looking at the figures from 2022 to 2024, only 39,000 homes were started each year. That is less than half of the 80,000 units Oh promised," adding, "If the current mayor, Oh, had simply kept his promise, that would have been enough."
He pointed out that purchases of rental housing for young people, officetels and urban-style housing near transit hubs had fallen sharply. He also promised to supply 87,000 households by 2027 by expanding public-led rentals as well as redevelopment and reconstruction projects. Jung had previously pledged to supply 360,000 homes by 2031 through streamlined redevelopment procedures and expanded public housing.
Oh fired back, saying, "Under former Mayor Park, 389 redevelopment and reconstruction zones were canceled. He was the chief culprit among the chief culprits who worsened the housing shortage," and added, "I returned to Seoul Metropolitan Government and worked desperately to revive the canceled zones, while also designating additional areas. The problem is that everything has come to a halt because of the Lee Jae-myung administration’s October 15 housing measures."
He argued that time was wasted when Park canceled the redevelopment zones, and that after they were re-designated, progress stalled because of the current administration’s tighter lending rules and stronger redevelopment regulations. Oh also criticized the situation, saying, "The focus is only on pushing people to prove they live in the homes and put properties on the market, so rent and lease prices have no choice but to surge."
As Jung and Oh delivered fiery remarks on the housing issue, the ruling and opposition parties stepped in to support their respective sides in the National Assembly. They did so through the committee’s hearing on poor construction at GTX.
The Democratic Party of Korea pushed back against Seoul Metropolitan Government’s explanation that it had reported the matter several times to government ministries. Its argument was that reporting the issue without separately marking it in a 500-page monthly report was effectively the same as not reporting it at all. In other words, the party claimed that Oh had deliberately concealed the matter. Cheon Jun-ho, the senior deputy floor leader for parliamentary affairs, also directly challenged the issue, asking, "Why was it concealed?"
The PPP tried to counter by saying the problem was that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport ignored Seoul Metropolitan Government’s reports. Park Soo-min, who had run in the Seoul mayoral primary, told Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yoon-deok, "The law says regular reports are supposed to be sent. They were clearly reported, but the minister did not read them," emphasizing that the ministry oversees the GTX project.
uknow@fnnews.com Kim Yoon-ho, Lee Seol-young, Kim Hyeong-gu