President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a meeting at Cheong Wa Dae in Jongno District, central Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
President Lee Jae Myung said Friday that he has ordered firm regulatory measures and a review of loan extensions and refinancing for multi-home owners, signaling a broader push to curb property speculation.
Lee’s remarks came as his administration moves to tighten lending to owners of multiple homes and press them to put more of their properties up for sale, aiming to increase housing supply — particularly in Seoul, where home prices have surged.
According to data released Friday by the Korea Real Estate Board, the average home price in Seoul rose to 981 million won ($676,400) last month, up more than 13 percent from a year earlier.
Lee wrote in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that real estate practices generating unearned income must be dismantled to build a country “where the people are the true owners” and where all can live in happiness.
Lee shared a report that financial authorities were reviewing the “rent-to-interest ratio” (RTI), a rule for registered rental housing businesses, which limits loans based on whether rental income covers interest payments.
“Why review only RTI? Loan extensions or refinancing at maturity are essentially no different from new loans,” Lee wrote. “For fairness, shouldn’t extensions or refinancing for existing multi-home owners face the same rules as new purchases?”
This is not the first time the president has publicly pressured multi-home owners through social media posts.
Over the Lunar New Year holiday, a period of traditional family gatherings, the president issued a series of messages aimed at the housing market, cautioning those holding multiple properties that the era of outsized speculative gains was drawing to a close.
On Wednesday, Lee called the politicians who created and enforced housing policies that left soaring property prices largely unchecked as a “social evil,” saying they had allowed preferential treatment to endure, fueled speculation in multiple homes and pursued excess gains despite a duty to prevent it.
Source: Korea Times News
