People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo [Yonhap]
People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo [Yonhap]

People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo on Tuesday criticized President Lee Jae Myung over the sale of his apartment in Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, saying Lee had "extended private loans to the buyer and opened the door to gap investment."

Ahn said in a Facebook post Tuesday that a certified copy of the property registry confirmed Lee had placed a 1.77 billion won mortgage lien in the buyer's name when selling the Bundang apartment.

"Taking into account the standard maximum-claim ratio, it appears he directly lent the buyer around 1.5 billion won ($1.01 million) and will collect interest and late-payment charges on top of that," Ahn said. He added that the Lee administration and commercial banks had been slashing loan limits and shattering the dreams of ordinary citizens trying to own a home, noting that bank loans for homes priced above 2.5 billion won — like the president's own property — are capped at no more than 200 million won.

Ahn said he "never imagined" a sitting president would employ seller financing — a method he described as quietly used among buyers and sellers of ultra-high-end properties — to profit from interest on a private loan. "When selling his own home, the president pulls out a clever new trick," he said.

Ahn said Lee was behaving like an invasive species disrupting the real estate market rather than working to stabilize housing prices. "Are real estate regulations a shackle for ordinary citizens but a tool for loopholes for himself?" he asked.

"Almost no one can buy a 3 billion won home in cash. And for ordinary people who need the proceeds from selling one home to buy the next, the option of lending 1.5 billion won to the buyer is simply not available," Ahn said. "This is a farce in which the president uses his privileged position to dodge the very regulations he created while pocketing the gains."


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