President Lee: It’s fake news to say his “housing prices are plunging” remark was accurate only for Gangnam

[Financial News] President Lee Jae Myung on the 4th pushed back against media reports that his remarks on real estate applied only to the Gangnam area, saying, “I never said housing prices across all of Seoul were plunging, so it’s fake news to say that only Gangnam was right.” He said that rendering his remarks about falling actual transaction prices in major areas of Seoul as a direct quote saying “housing prices are plunging,” and comparing that with price trends across Seoul as a whole, misrepresented what he meant.
President Lee shared a related media article on X (formerly Twitter) that day and wrote as follows.
President Lee pointed out, “What I said about Seoul housing prices—that ‘actual transaction prices in major areas are also falling to a surprising extent’—cannot mean the same thing as ‘plunging.’” He went on to stress that even if the meaning were the same, it “should not be presented as a direct quote using quotation marks.”
Regarding the report’s assessment that his remarks applied only to Gangnam, he said, “‘Only Gangnam was right’ means that what I said about other areas was wrong, but it is clear that I was referring only to major areas of Seoul—that is, Gangnam, Seocho District and Songpa District.”
He added, “It’s in the body of the article as well, so I hope you’ll judge for yourselves,” and reproduced in his post the remarks he had made in the article. President Lee had said, “Listings in Seoul are increasing rapidly, and transaction volumes are also falling sharply,” and “Actual transaction prices in major areas are also falling to a surprising extent, although of course there are areas where that is not the case.” This was seen as underscoring that he had not presented falling housing prices as a phenomenon affecting all of Seoul.
President Lee also added, “I hope you’ll take a good look at the objective data, including the surge in listings across Seoul, the sharp drop in transactions, the prolonged steep decline in housing prices in major areas of Seoul such as Gangnam, and the increases in delinquency rates and the number of auctions.”
The previous day, President Lee had mentioned the increase in apartment listings and decline in transaction volumes in Seoul, as well as falling actual transaction prices in major areas, while discussing the outlook for the housing market in the Seoul metropolitan area at a State Council of South Korea meeting he chaired at Cheong Wa Dae. He urged the government to explain market data properly, saying, “I think it may be important to make sure the public can access these accurate data directly.”
[email protected] Choi Jong-geun Reporter