[Anchor]
The Seoul Metropolitan Government held a real estate forum today (August 6), where harsh criticism poured out against the government's real estate tax reform proposals. A young office worker in her 20s expressed anxiety, saying she is unsure when her landlord might demand the monthly rental property she barely secured for their own residence, while real estate agents criticized that the government failed to stabilize housing prices and only drove up jeonse and wolse (lump-sum and monthly rent) rates.
Reporter Yun Nara has the details.
[Reporter]
Some 50 citizens, certified public real estate agents, and experts attended the Seoul real estate policy forum.
Participants unanimously pointed out that the government's tax reform proposals failed to fully consider the impact they would have on the jeonse and wolse markets.
A person in their 20s who recently started working in Seoul said that even the monthly rental home they managed to find amid a shortage of jeonse properties has become a source of anxiety.
[Kim Min-jung / Novice worker: If the landlord decides to move in and live here myself, I am worried whether I will have to move out and go through this exhausting process of finding a home all over again.]
Real estate agents diagnosed that following the announcement of the tax reform proposal, which increases the tax burden on non-resident single-home owners, listings for jeonse and wolse have noticeably decreased as landlords actually move in to live in their properties.
[Park Jun / Songpa-gu, Seoul (Real estate agent): Since owners who used to lease their properties are trying to move in, we usually had about 50 to 80 jeonse and wolse listings, but now they have dropped to under 10, and prices have risen sharply.]
They also pointed out that housing sales prices are surging significantly.
[Kim Yong-hyuk / Gangseo-gu, Seoul (Real estate agent): When there are no jeonse or wolse properties available, people who intended to rent have to buy homes instead. Over the past month or two, apartment prices seem to have risen by 100 million won.]
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon sharpened his criticism against government policies, stating that housing issues must be resolved through supply rather than taxes and regulations.
[Oh Se-hoon / Mayor of Seoul: How can the jeonse and wolse problems be solved by imposing heavy taxes on those who already own homes? We must provide business incentives to private rental housing suppliers to encourage more investment and supply.]
Mayor Oh also drew a line regarding the proposal to supply housing on the Yongsan Park site, stating that it is the duty of the Seoul Mayor to preserve Seoul's green spaces and that such a plan is "out of the question."
(Video filming: Joo Bum, Kim Heung-ki | Video editing: Yu Mi-ra)
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