A view of an apartment reconstruction site in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 23rd. At the National Open Debate on Real Estate Policy held that day, participants expressed conflicting opinions on the housing supply effects of reconstruction and redevelopment. [Photo=Yonhap News]

On the 23rd, the People Power Party launched a unified offensive against the National Open Debate on Real Estate Policy presided over by President Lee Jae-myung, asking, "Have you completely given up on normalizing the real estate market?"

Five-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won of Seoul fiercely criticized the event in a Facebook post, calling it "a declaration by a new socialist privileged class who intends to keep the public down with real estate loan regulations while enjoying real estate privileges for themselves."

Targeting President Lee's remark during the debate that "we would need to raise property taxes by three times (the current level) even to reach the level of advanced nations," Rep. Na remarked, "I am left speechless by the hypocrisy of someone who mentions a 'tripling of property taxes' for the public right after selling off their own home."

She continued, "It is truly lamentable to witness the reality of South Korea, where a president who is a slippery 'legal trickster'—bypassing real estate regulations meant to bind the public by using 1.7 billion won in private loans—broadcasts a live, pathetic show of criticizing the public's real estate while maximizing his own real estate profits."

Two-term Busan lawmaker Park Soo-young also criticized the debate via Facebook, calling it a "predetermined, non-communicative show that ignores the market and the people."

Rep. Park took issue with President Lee's statement that "in the case of reconstruction, the number of households sometimes increases, but it doesn't seem to increase significantly, and in the case of redevelopment, it seems normal for the total number of move-ins to decrease."

He argued, "President Lee disparaged urban renewal projects, which are central to downtown supply, with absurd logic," and asked, "If you aren't going to increase private redevelopment, where exactly do you plan to supply housing for the metropolitan area?"

Regarding President Lee's remark that "there is general agreement that property taxes need to be strengthened," he pushed back, stating, "This is a rehash of the populist 'divide and conquer' strategy of the Moon Jae-in administration, which failed miserably while trying to stabilize real estate through taxes instead of supply."

Chief Spokesperson Choi Bo-yoon also issued a commentary criticizing the debate as nothing more than a "public opinion manipulation show," adding, "It did nothing but justify the government's policy failures while turning a blind eye to the cries from the field and warnings from the market."

Chief Spokesperson Choi pointed out, "Above all, the process of President Lee's Bundang apartment sale is the pinnacle of hypocrisy. While he trampled on the dream of homeownership by building high walls of harsh loan regulations for the public, he himself resorted to an odd private loan trick by setting up a mortgage worth 1.77 billion won for the buyer while selling his own high-priced 2.9 billion won apartment."

She emphasized, "If even the top authority in the country has to resort to tricks and detours because normal transactions are impossible, it is a self-admission that this administration's real estate policy has failed completely," adding, "What the people want right now is not a self-congratulatory debate by the President, but a fundamental transformation of real estate policy."