Yong Hye-in, floor leader of the Basic Income Party and nominee for minister of gender equality and family, arrives at her office at the National Assembly building on Monday. [Yonhap]
Yong Hye-in, floor leader of the Basic Income Party and nominee for minister of gender equality and family, arrives at her office at the National Assembly building on Monday. [Yonhap]

Yong Hye-in, a Basic Income Party lawmaker nominated as minister of gender equality and family, pocketed a 20 million won ($14,600) profit by reselling a housing unit in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province to a Chinese national just 11 months after buying it in 2021, a fellow lawmaker alleged.

People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo made the claim Tuesday in a Facebook post titled "She called for ending real estate windfall profits, but she herself did a quick flip to a Chinese national," according to Yonhap.

According to a certified registry document Joo released, Yong bought a unit in a five-story apartment building in Sado, Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi Province on April 20, 2021 for 245 million won, then sold it on March 25, 2022 for 265 million won.

The buyer is listed only as a Chinese national residing in Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.

People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo. [Yonhap]
People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo. [Yonhap]

"She made a 20 million won profit in less than a year," Joo said. "By the Lee Jae Myung administration's own standards, this was a speculative quick flip aimed at capital gains, not owner-occupancy."

He added that on the very day Yong purchased the Ansan property, she had publicly stated that "the goal of real estate policy should be falling prices, not price stability." He then asked: "Why didn't she sell her own home at a lower price?"

Joo said the more serious issue was that the property was sold to a Chinese national. "A lawmaker who should be protecting the interests of Korean citizens effectively assisted a Chinese national in real estate shopping," he said.

He further said Yong had "exploited rather than corrected the imbalance in the real estate market — one where reciprocity does not apply and Korean citizens are left at a disadvantage" and called on the government to immediately withdraw her ministerial nomination.

Yong had made the remark about real estate prices during a National Assembly interpellation session on April 20, 2021, directed at then-Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki, in which she argued for the introduction of a "basic income land tax."


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com