Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon Slams Ruling Party's Criticism Over Real Estate Supply as Petty Shift of Blame

▲ Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon speaks during a People Power Party floor countermeasures meeting held at the National Assembly on the 14th.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon criticized the ruling party's criticism regarding real estate supply disruptions as "in a word, a petty, so to speak, shifting of the blame."

Attending a People Power Party floor countermeasures meeting at the National Assembly in an unusual move, Mayor Oh met with reporters and was asked whether President Lee Jae-myung's remark yesterday that there has been a "supply cliff from 2022 until now" was aimed at him. He answered, "The negative impact of the 10-year tenure of former Mayor Park Won-soon is still reaching into the present," giving this response.

In his opening remarks at the meeting, Mayor Oh noted, "During the term of the late Democratic Party Mayor Park, 389 redevelopment zones were canceled in Seoul, and from 2016 to 2020, there was not a single new designation for housing redevelopment." He emphasized, "This accumulated supply vacuum is returning as residential instability."

He continued, "Nevertheless, some within the government and the ruling party remain trapped in an outdated ideology that views maintenance and redevelopment projects as speculation, even denying the effects of supply." He explained, "However, as a result of analyzing 59 redevelopment and reconstruction projects completed over the past three years, maintenance projects have a net housing increase effect of 27.4% for redevelopment and 44.2% for reconstruction."

Mayor Oh stated, "Maintenance and redevelopment projects are the most realistic and powerful means of housing supply in Seoul." Regarding the government's real estate supply measures, he evaluated, "It is fortunate that the regulatory improvements for maintenance projects, which the Seoul Metropolitan Government has repeatedly requested, have been partially reflected."

He stated, "The Seoul Metropolitan Government will actively cooperate where cooperation is needed," while adding, "The approach of excluding Seoul, which executes housing supply on the ground, from the policy-making process is undesirable, and the announcement process was deeply regrettable."

Mayor Oh emphasized his opposition to plans utilizing greenbelt areas in the Seoul region.

Regarding the government's real estate tax reform proposals, he stressed, "Above all, what is important is fundamentally changing the direction of real estate policy." He emphasized, "Policies fixated on actual residency, which shake the leasing market and increase public suffering, must be completely reviewed from scratch."

He further criticized, "However, the situation where even the freedom to move residences is being infringed upon continues."

Mayor Oh pointed out, "We must first discard the uniform mindset that judges citizens as speculators based solely on whether they actually reside in a property." He noted, "Reducing deduction benefits for long-term single-home owners and increasing tax burdens simply because someone cannot live in their own home due to personal circumstances amounts to a de facto tax hike, and a violent tax hike that passes the blame for policy failure onto the public."

Mayor Oh's attendance at today's meeting took place upon the invitation of the People Power Party's floor leadership.

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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