Choi Byung-cheon, former vice president of the Democratic Research Institute [Choi's Facebook]
Choi Byung-cheon, former vice president of the Democratic Research Institute [Choi's Facebook]

Choi Byung-cheon, a senior researcher at law firm Sejong's trade and industrial policy center and former vice president of the Democratic Research Institute — the think tank of the Democratic Party of Korea — warned Saturday that the government faces a revolt from young people in their 20s and 30s over surging jeonse and monthly rent costs and lending restrictions, unless it fundamentally overhauls its real estate policy.

Choi raised the alarm in a Facebook post titled "Why are young people in their 20s and 30s angry about real estate policy," citing polling that showed a sharp drop in President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating among that age group.

"According to a survey released Wednesday by Hankil Research and the Korea Society Opinion Institute, 28 percent of people in their 30s approve of President Lee's job performance while 70 percent disapprove," Choi wrote. "Interestingly, approval and disapproval of his real estate policy are nearly identical — 26 percent and 70 percent, respectively." He also cited a separate poll by Media Tomato released Thursday, which showed approval among people in their 20s at 33 percent and disapproval at 59 percent — an 18 percentage-point drop from the previous week.

Choi attributed recent statistics showing that the majority of apartment buyers in Seoul were in their 30s to what he called a "learning effect" from previous progressive governments.

"Today's 30-somethings experienced the Moon Jae-in administration when they were in their mid-to-late 20s," he said. "They lived through a period when housing prices were skyrocketing while access to mortgage loans was being cut off." He added that the anger was inevitable: "They bought their apartments with loans back in the day, and now they're pushing ideological policies that make the housing market even more unstable — and blocking us from taking out loans to buy homes ourselves. How could that not make people furious?"

Choi argued that the government's real estate policy was moving in the exact opposite direction from its foreign policy, which he said had embraced pragmatism.

"A progressive government in the grip of an ideology that demonizes multi-home owners is eliminating both multi-home owners and jeonse, and dumping the resulting jeonse and monthly rent crisis onto young people in their 20s and 30s," Choi said. "Jeonse and monthly rent have exploded, and when people try to buy a home, the loans that everyone else already got are now blocked." He described the situation as the opposite of policies that put livelihoods first — "not livelihood-ism, but rent-explosion-ism."

On the government's real estate regulations, Choi said they would "inevitably lead to a sharp drop in jeonse supply, a shift from jeonse to monthly rent, a surge in monthly rent, and a spike in sale prices in areas on the outskirts of Seoul." He warned that Seoul was heading toward an era of monthly rents of 2 million won ($1,410), then 3 million won, then 4 million won.


arin@heraldcorp.com