Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon pushed back against President Lee Jae-myung's news conference remarks holding him responsible for the surge in Seoul home prices, telling the president to "properly recognize the real world." Oh said Lee was blaming others instead of changing the direction of housing policy, and urged a shift in course.
In a post on his Facebook page on the 18th titled "You Can Blame Oh Se-hoon," the mayor wrote: "Today the president said housing permits and construction starts in Seoul have been cut in half since 2022, and appeared to place the blame on the previous government and on Oh Se-hoon."
"The president cannot possibly be unaware of what process and how much time it takes for housing to reach the point of construction," Oh said. "Had he properly looked at the report on redevelopment and rebuilding progress that the Seoul city government submitted to him, it would have been difficult to make the kind of remarks he made today."
At the news conference that day, Lee said the causes of the short-term surge in Seoul home prices dated back to earlier administrations. "In 2022, when the Yoon Suk-yeol government took office and Mayor Oh was elected, the number of permits and construction starts was cut in half," Lee said. "From that year through last year it fell by nearly half, and supply contracted sharply." He added: "In this situation, land transaction permit requirements were lifted, and home prices in certain areas soared again."
In response, Oh said: "To bear fruit, you must sow seeds and tend them. No matter how much the president wishes to deny it, it does not change the fact that it was Mayor Park Won-soon who scrapped that entire process by canceling redevelopment and rebuilding projects across all of Seoul."
He also stressed: "The data alone show that Seoul home prices were trending downward and stabilizing since Mayor Oh Se-hoon took office in 2022, and then turned upward around the time President Lee Jae-myung was inaugurated. It is a fact that the point when prices, which had settled back down after the land transaction permit zones were reinstated, began to climb again also coincided with the president's inauguration."
"Saying it is 'Oh Se-hoon's fault' may put the president's mind at ease," Oh said. "But if the rise in Seoul home prices is because of Oh Se-hoon, why was I elected Seoul mayor again, and why does the president's approval rating in Seoul keep falling?" He went on: "Blame Oh Se-hoon all you like. But please, at the very least, properly recognize the reality of what is happening on the ground right now."
Oh said: "In Seoul, the housing ladder for newlyweds and young adults is at risk of collapsing entirely. With loans unavailable, they cannot even contemplate buying a home, and as jeonse (a lump-sum deposit lease) dries up as well, they are giving up on life in Seoul." He added: "I hope this is not what the president means by taking the strength out of Seoul."
"Pushing young people out of Seoul and cutting off the middle class's hope of buying a home cannot be balanced development. That approach will not revive the provinces either," he said. "All that will be left is a result that kills Seoul and kills the future of young people along with it."
