Lee steps up pressure on multiple-home owners

President Lee Jae-myung said on Feb. 1 that owners of multiple homes should stop trying to unfairly pressure the government by calling this a bolt from the blue as the suspension of higher property taxes nears its end. He urged them to take advantage of what he described as a limited tax relief opportunity provided by society. “There are still 100 days left,” he said.

Over the weekend, Lee posted four separate messages on social media, sending a clear warning to multi-home owners that this could be their last chance to sell properties under lower tax rates.

“We cannot allow the country to be ruined just to provide unlimited protection for a small group seeking unearned income,” Lee wrote. Sharing an article on potential side effects from the May 9 expiration of the tax suspension, he called for restraint, urging people not to defend destructive speculation or launch baseless attacks on the government. Lee said soaring housing prices and rents have forced young people to give up on marriage, lowered birthrates, and put the nation’s future at risk. He questioned whether imposing taxes on such gains could truly be considered unjust.

On Jan. 31, Lee posted another message asking whether normalizing what he described as a destructive real estate market was truly impossible. He said achieving this goal was far easier and more important than reaching a KOSPI 5,000 target or clearing illegal structures from mountain valleys. After the People Power Party criticized the president, questioning why such normalization had not yet been achieved if it were so easy, Lee responded at 11:49 p.m., saying some critics failed to understand his point “like kindergarteners.”

Citing his experience as Gyeonggi Province governor, when he led the removal of illegal valley structures, and his progress toward the KOSPI 5,000 pledge, Lee said stabilizing housing prices would succeed by whatever means necessary. He added that the government has both the will and the tools to act, urging multi-home owners not to oppose policy measures to their own detriment but to take advantage of tax cuts while opportunities remain and reduce excess property holdings.

Since Jan. 24, Lee has posted eight messages on social media over the course of a week, most aimed at owners of multiple homes. As critics have labeled proposed tax revisions, including higher property holding taxes, as a repeat of policies under the Moon Jae-in administration, Lee has emphasized that his government is taking a different approach. A presidential office official said the posts aim to encourage property sales ahead of the June 3 local elections and to stabilize housing prices before a broader real estate tax overhaul.

Presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom also weighed in on Jan. 31, sharing the results of a Gallup Korea survey showing that more respondents view stocks, rather than real estate, as the most favorable investment option. “Whether this shift is consumed by another speculative cycle or develops into a stable system focused on productive finance and capital markets is now a matter of institutional design and choice,” Kim wrote. His remarks underscored the government’s intent to redirect capital from real estate to the stock market.


Hoon-Sang Park tigermask@donga.com