Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party candidate for Seoul mayor, who has been sharply criticizing Lee Jae-myung's dwellings supply policy, visited Gangnam and Songpa in Seoul on the 15th to hold a "real estate hell citizens' countermeasures meeting."
The real estate hell citizens' countermeasures meeting is a roundtable where candidate Oh visits all 25 autonomous districts of Seoul to hear citizens' views on dwellings maintenance projects such as redevelopment and reconstruction to resolve real estate issues.
On this day, candidate Oh visited the Songpa Hanyang Apartment Complex 1 in Songpa-gu, Seoul, held the "real estate hell citizens' countermeasures meeting," and then went to Sinsa-dong in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, to continue the meeting.
At Songpa Hanyang Apartment Complex 1, candidate Oh met residents and said, "When I came to Songpa, I still remember the banners during Mayor Park Won-soon's entire term that read, 'How can we live in a home with rusty water? Why won't you allow reconstruction?' I vividly remember how you lived like that for years, and then suddenly (candidate Jeong) shows up and says, 'If we do it, we'll do it better,' so residents must be dumbfounded."
Regarding this, one citizen said, "The recent vicious cycle in real estate, including the rise in jeonse prices, is the result of Mayor Park Won-soon maintaining the problems of reconstruction and redevelopment, and it continues to this day," adding, "That policy is inflicting harm squarely on young people, tenants, newlyweds, and vulnerable groups."
Officials involved in the Gangnam and Songpa dwellings maintenance projects who attended the citizens' countermeasures meeting that day emphasized the need to speed up redevelopment and reconstruction.
Nam Won-hyeok, head of the reconstruction promotion committee for Songpa Hanyang Apartment Complex 1, said, "Our complex began reconstruction 10 years later than other places, but under the streamlined planning, various project authorization and permitting procedures could be brought forward significantly," adding, "The exterior of the apartment built 40 years ago looks fine, but once you go inside it's a time bomb situation, so reconstruction needs to happen quickly one way or another."
Among residents, there was also criticism of the government's ongoing real estate and lending policies. A resident of Hanyang Apartment Complex 1, a person surnamed Jo, said, "The government is telling us to move somewhere, but those living in reconstruction complexes have resided there for more than 10 years, and if the long-term holding special deduction disappears, we can't even sell and leave," adding, "Older people who have lived in Seoul for years have nowhere to go, so the long-term holding special deduction is absolutely necessary."
In response, candidate Oh said, "On the reconstruction system, in the overall process of carrying out maintenance projects, such as the reconstruction excess profits recovery system or the price cap on presales, the Democratic Party's standards of judgment have not changed at all," adding, "If we look back over the past 10 years, the Democratic Party's principles on Seoul dwellings supply and on redevelopment and reconstruction projects will not change at all."