The People Power Party is taking direct aim at the Oct. 15 real estate measures. Believing that the tough real estate package is dragging down support for the government and ruling party not only in Seoul but also in Gyeonggi Province, the party is concentrating its firepower.
Song Eon-seok, floor leader of the People Power Party, said at a National Assembly audit strategy meeting on the 21st, "Lee Jae-myung's government real estate policy is crushing the dream of buying dwellings and of residential stability for the public," and added, "Senior officials in the government and ruling party are compounding the pain with abusive remarks toward people trapped in a hopeless situation where they can neither buy nor sell homes."
Song said, "Twenty out of 30 presidential office aides own real estate within restricted-sale zones," and added, "The Lee Jae-myung government and the ruling camp's upper echelon are reaping economic gains with tens of billions in asset while forcing the public to return to being jeonse and monthly rent refugees."
Policy Committee Chair Kim Do-eup also criticized, "The Democratic Party says it will set up a real estate support task force, but just six days ago the government and the Democratic Party announced real estate measures after a party-government consultation, and now they say they will create a task force to supplement them," adding, "This zigzag real estate policy is the hallmark of an amateur, incompetent administration."
A day after he had criticized the Oct. 15 real estate measures using the term "real estate terror," party leader Jang Dong-hyeok personally took the helm as Chairperson of the People Power Party's newly announced "special committee on normalizing real estate policy." Jang said, "Real estate is an issue directly tied to the lives of all citizens, and it will likely grow into a major problem nationwide starting in the capital region," adding, "At this rate, we will fail to rein in housing prices while only amplifying side effects, so we formed a special committee to craft real estate measures."
The People Power Party's Seoul chapter also created the "special committee on normalizing the housing ladder (Dice special committee)" and joined the criticism of real estate policy. Lawmaker Kim Jae-seop (Dobong A), considered part of the party's reformist wing, was appointed Chairperson of the special committee. Although Kim has taken positions different from the party leadership on several issues, including prison visits to former President Yoon Suk-yeol, he is speaking with one voice when it comes to criticizing the Oct. 15 real estate measures.
Park Jae-heung, Spokesperson for the People Power Party's Seoul chapter, said, "As a young lawmaker from northern Seoul, Kim is the right person to convey most vividly what harm Lee Jae-myung's bottom-of-the-barrel real estate scheme will cause," adding, "Although Kim Jae-seop's constituency in northern Seoul has long been neglected on real estate issues, it is now bound by even tougher regulations, resulting in severe damage."
The People Power Party is also doggedly pursuing the real estate measures during the National Assembly audit in committees such as the National Policy Committee and the Strategy and Finance Committee. A People Power Party official noted, "We judge that the real estate measures are drawing a bigger public response than any other issue," adding, "During the remaining audit period, the focus will likely be on questioning related to real estate."
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea, meanwhile, is scrambling to keep the backlash from the real estate measures from spreading. The Democratic Party on this day named Policy Committee Chair Han Jeong-ae as Director General of the "task force for stabilizing the housing market." The five-member task force plans to focus on follow-up steps to the Oct. 15 package, centered on dwellings supply measures.
Since the announcement, criticism of the ruling camp has mounted online, with lists circulating on internet communities naming ruling party lawmakers who own real estate in the three Gangnam districts and in the Ma–Yong–Seong (Mapo, Yongsan, Seongdong) areas. That is why the Democratic Party hastily formed a task force and moved to craft follow-up measures.
After it became known that Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Koo Yun-cheol said at a press briefing, "If it is burdensome to hold high-priced homes, people will sell, and liquidity will come into the real estate market," and as the possibility of a property tax hike was raised, the ruling party leadership immediately issued the stance that "it is not true that a property tax increase is under discussion," in the same vein.
Park Su-hyeon, the Democratic Party's chief Spokesperson, said in a written briefing that day, "This real estate package is designed to minimize the impact on working-class people and genuine end-users and to firmly bolster residential stability for working people and youth," adding, "If the current overheating of the real estate market is left unchecked, the rise in dwellings prices will spread across the greater Seoul area and market distortions will become, as clear as day, even worse. Preventing this is naturally the government's role."