Hong Ji-seon, the nominee for minister of land, infrastructure and transport, answers reporters' questions while arriving at Government Complex Sejong on Aug. 31.
Hong Ji-seon, the nominee for minister of land, infrastructure and transport, answers reporters' questions while arriving at Government Complex Sejong on Aug. 31.

Hong Ji-seon, the nominee to head the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, switched jeonse rentals five times over 13 years before buying an apartment in Seoul, records show. The opposition party said Hong's history warrants scrutiny of her real estate policy stance. It noted that as head of Gyeonggi Province's Urban Housing Bureau, she had argued against excessive jeonse living and debt-financed home purchases in favor of introducing basic housing.

Rep. Kim Eun-hye of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, obtained Hong's nomination hearing documents. According to those documents, Hong sold her existing apartment in Suwon's Seongwon complex for 250 million won ($187,000) just before moving into a jeonse apartment in Nowon-gu in 2012.

She then lived in a jeonse unit at Nowon-gu's Geonyoung Apartment for 350 million won starting in August 2012. She moved to Nowon-gu's Green Apartment for a jeonse deposit of 310 million won in August 2014. In 2018, she moved to Suwon's Raemian Novus Class complex, paying a jeonse deposit of 415 million won. Later that year, she relocated again to an apartment in Yeongdeungpo-gu, where the jeonse deposit jumped to 570 million won.

In 2021, she moved into Yeongdeungpo-gu's Dangsan Lotte Castle with a jeonse deposit of 925 million won. After switching jeonse housing five times over 13 years, she finally ended her jeonse living last year. She purchased an apartment at Sindorim Taeyoung Apartment in Guro-gu, Seoul, for 1.05 billion won.

Hong, speaking in November 2021 during Lee Jae Myung's tenure as Gyeonggi governor, explained the rationale behind the basic housing policy, saying, "The idea is to provide a housing option that allows people to live stably at an appropriate cost for as long as they want, long-term, without having to buy a home through excessive jeonse or loans."

Rep. Kim criticized this, saying, "The public can no longer use the housing ladder the minister herself climbed. The reality of the Lee Jae Myung administration's real estate policy is that senior government officials actively used jeonse-switching to secure their own homes, while ordinary people are no longer able to do so." She added, "I will focus on the confirmation hearing to help restore that housing ladder."


betterj@heraldcorp.com