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

Former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seong-min sharply criticized the government's tax reform package Sunday.

Writing on social media, Yoo said public sentiment in the Greater Seoul area had turned sharply against the real estate market since the Aug. 3 tax reform announcement. "Even before Aug. 3, housing prices and jeonse and monthly rents were surging and causing anxiety," he said. "The Aug. 3 measures are not stabilizing the market — they are causing extreme instability."

Yoo said the Lee Jae Myung administration's decision to penalize non-owner-occupied properties was falling hardest on tenants. "Because the Lee Jae Myung government discriminates between owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied properties and imposes penalties on the latter, jeonse and monthly-rent tenants end up bearing the damage," he said. He noted that 53.4 percent of Seoul households, 35.3 percent in Incheon and 39.8 percent in Gyeonggi Province live as renters. "Countless people live as tenants in these homes, yet by labeling them 'non-owner-occupied' and hitting landlords with capital gains tax and comprehensive real estate tax penalties, tenants have no choice but to be pushed out or pay higher jeonse or monthly rent," he said.

Yoo added that if the rental market had an abundant supply and stable jeonse and monthly rents, the problem would not be so severe. "But supply is short and demand keeps growing, so tenants are going to go through hell," he said.

He also said the Democratic Party administration's deep-seated hostility toward the private rental market was hurting only tenants. "The Democratic Party administration's bias — demonizing jeonse, a market institution that has served as a housing ladder — is also a problem," he said. "By now, President Lee Jae Myung and the Democratic Party should recognize the seriousness of the situation."

Yoo proposed several remedies: abolishing punitive taxes on non-owner-occupied properties and scrapping the excessive owner-occupancy requirement; reviewing the long-term holding special deduction; abolishing the land transaction permit system; and easing jeonse loan regulations.

In closing, Yoo noted that President Lee himself had been a non-owner-occupying single-homeowner before selling his Bundang apartment, and that a jeonse tenant had been living in that home. "I hope he starts by fixing the taxes that harm tenants' lives," Yoo said. "If jeonse and monthly-rent tenants suffer enormous hardship because of the Aug. 3 tax reform, their resentment and anger will be directed at the president's double standard."


min3654@heraldcorp.com