Two out of three people said the method used by President Lee Jae-myung and his spouse to sell their home in Bundang District, Seongnam, by using a collateralized mortgage right worth 1.77 billion won was inappropriate.
According to a survey conducted on the 24th by the Reform Party's Reform Research Institute, 64.4% of respondents said the president and his spouse's method for selling the Bundang District home and setting a collateralized mortgage right was "inappropriate." Those saying it was "appropriate" were 31.3%.
The home at the center of the controversy is an apartment President Lee purchased in 1998, which has been co-owned with first lady Kim Hea-kyung since 2018. The apartment was listed in March at 2.9 billion won, about 10% below market price, and controversy arose during the transaction process that followed. It became known that on the day the buyers received the ownership transfer, a collateralized mortgage right was set with the president and his spouse as creditors for a maximum claim amount of 1.77 billion won.
Some raised the possibility that, ahead of designating the trustee company as the project executor for the Yangji Village integrated reconstruction, part of the sale price payment was postponed to complete the ownership transfer first as a transaction.
By age group, the view that it was inappropriate was highest among those in their 30s at 87.5%. Those aged 18 to 29 followed at 82.2%. It was 61.1% for those 70 and older, 56.9% for those in their 50s, and 54.2% for those in their 40s.
Responses also differed by whether respondents owned a home. Among those without a home, 69.8% said it was inappropriate, 9.4 percentage points (p) higher than homeowners (60.4%).
By region, negative evaluations were highest in Seoul (73.7%) and in Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang (72.4%), and only in the Honam region (44.7%) was the negative evaluation below half.
The survey was conducted by automated response via mobile phone with 502 men and women nationwide aged 18 and older. The margin of error at the 95% confidence level is ±4.4 percentage points, and as a survey on social issues rather than an election poll, it is not subject to reporting to the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.