Former lawmaker Yoo Seong-min [Yonhap]
Former lawmaker Yoo Seong-min [Yonhap]

Former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seong-min on Thursday sharply criticized Cheong Wa Dae's announcement that it would soon unveil a real estate supply package, calling it a "face-saving distraction by a Cheong Wa Dae rattled by the chaos in real estate and the stock market."

In a social media post Thursday, Yoo said the presidential office appeared not to understand what the core problem even was. He cited remarks made the same day by Cheong Wa Dae communications chief Seong Gi-hong in a media interview — in which Seong said the current real estate tax overhaul was not intended as a short-term measure to stabilize the housing market and that the government did not believe it could control home prices through property taxes — and called them "comments that show a complete ignorance of the reality of the real estate market."

"It is common sense that touching taxes — whether holding taxes or capital gains taxes — moves the market," Yoo said. "Punitive taxes on high-value, non-owner-occupied multi-home properties will have an immediate impact on an already extremely unstable market — driving up jeonse and monthly rent costs and locking up supply, hurting tenants."

Yoo also took aim at Cheong Wa Dae's pledge to announce measures on housing supply and mortgage lending, saying "the policy order is completely backwards." He said that while the middle class, ordinary citizens and young people were suffering acutely under home prices and jeonse and monthly rent costs worse than during the Moon Jae-in administration, the Lee Jae Myung government had been "consumed with MoneyMove to pump up share prices," tightening the flow of home-backed loans, jeonse loans and relocation financing while showing no interest in supply.

"'Supply first' was just talk — what they actually led with was 'taxes first,'" he said.

Yoo also demanded the dismissal of the Cheong Wa Dae policy chief, saying the official bore the greatest responsibility for policy failures — including creating single-stock leveraged products that turned the stock market into "a gambling den" and left countless young people and ordinary citizens in financial ruin. Cheong Wa Dae had refused his call to remove the official, citing the need to focus on remedial measures. "What citizen would accept leaving the person most responsible for the policy failures in place and still expect any real solutions?" he said.


jshan@heraldcorp.com