Oh Se-hoon: "President Lee's Repeated 'Mental Victories' Only Prolong Real Estate Hell"

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon criticized President Lee Jae-myung, stating, "Repeating 'mental victories' while turning a blind eye to facts will not change the outcome of policies. It will only prolong the real estate hell experienced by the public."

In a Facebook post on Tuesday (October 6), Mayor Oh went on the offensive, saying, "Seeing the various posts regarding real estate that the president made on social media yesterday, I even felt that trying to persuade the president any further would be meaningless."

Mayor Oh said, "There appears to be no hope going forward under the president's narrow view that rising housing prices are the fault of speculators, criticisms of policy side effects are resistance from vested interests, and public outcries of suffering are backlash that must be endured during the reform process."

He continued, "Moreover, it makes me scoff to see him claim that the year-on-year increase in permits and groundbreaking in Seoul and the capital area is thanks to the government's swift campaign. What kind of swift campaign did the government supposedly carry out? It takes an average of more than 10 years from the establishment of an association to groundbreaking. Does the president possess some kind of magic lamp that can produce permits and groundbreakings in just one year?"

He added, "The fact that results in permits and groundbreaking have begun to show sequentially starting this year is the outcome of the Seoul Metropolitan Government working day and night to restore redevelopment projects that were uprooted and sprayed with herbicide during Mayor Park Won-soon's tenure. During Mayor Park's term, redevelopment projects across 389 sites and 430,000 housing units were canceled, but we designated 214 new sites and improved project profitability, doing everything possible to create conditions for permits and groundbreakings to take place swiftly."

He also remarked, "It is even pitiful to see the president offering self-serving interpretations while deliberately ignoring this process of normalizing supply."

Mayor Oh criticized, "The president also unabashedly revealed an unfounded, dichotomous mindset, claiming that 'conservative governments encouraged speculation while progressive governments curbed it.' What more can we expect from a president who cannot take a single step away from viewing real estate through ideology rather than market principles?"

He pointed out, "According to his logic, housing prices should have surged under conservative governments that allegedly encourage speculation and stabilized under progressive governments that curb it, but the reality is the exact opposite."

Mayor Oh analyzed, "I believe the president has lost confidence in real estate policy. The louder the slogans of cracking down on speculators become, and the more policies are packaged as reforms, the more it means this administration's real estate policy is heading toward failure."

He continued, "The president asked the public to relax and wait a little longer. That is not something to say in front of citizens who are burning with anxiety because they cannot even find a home to move into right away amid the crisis in jeonse and monthly rentals."

He concluded his post by writing, "Frankly admit the failure of real estate policy over the past year, and courageously declare that you will correct the wrong direction and start anew from scratch. Changing one's thinking and policies in the face of public suffering—that is truly the genuine courage that the nation's top leader can show."

Yesterday, President Lee reaffirmed his policy stance in a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying, "I will surely keep the promise to escape the Republic of Real Estate Speculation."

In another subsequent post, he stated, "Excluding conservative governments that encourage real estate speculation, every democratic administration has tried to curb real estate speculation, but we were unable to achieve the intended results. Please relax and wait a little longer. Please judge based on the results."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
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