President Lee Jae-myung Seeks Public Input on Taxing 'Ultra-High-Value' Single Homes via Real-Time Poll

[Anchor]

Today, July 14, discussions were held on major economic issues, ranging from real estate policy to growth and distribution in the AI era. During a Cabinet meeting at the Blue House, the issue of increasing the tax burden on ultra-high-value single homes worth billions of won was addressed. President Lee Jae-myung asked for public opinion in real-time via comments, seeking views on whether to impose higher taxes and what the threshold for such homes should be.

We have the first report from Kang Min-u.

[Reporter]

At the Cabinet meeting held this morning, where government ministries reported on real estate policies.

President Lee Jae-myung noted that there is social controversy over whether to impose the same tax burden on so-called high-value single homes or ultra-high-value homes worth over 10 billion won as other single-home owners. He spontaneously suggested asking the public for their input through the real-time comment feature on YouTube.

[President Lee Jae-myung: If you agree that it would be better to impose a differentiated tax burden on ultra-high-value homes, even if it is a single home for actual residence, please press 1. If you disagree, please press 2.]

A few minutes later, the results were in.

[Lim Ki-geun, Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination: Most of the comments are 1. (What is the proportion?) The proportion is around 90 percent...]

[President Lee Jae-myung: It seems there is a general consensus that we should strengthen the burden on ultra-high-value homes, even if they are single homes for actual residence.]

The President also suggested gathering opinions on what the market value threshold for an ultra-high-value home should be. He appeared somewhat surprised when told that many comments suggested 3 billion won was appropriate.

[President Lee Jae-myung: That is unexpected. I thought it would be around 5 billion won. (There are also quite a lot of comments for 2 billion won.) Is 2 billion won also a lot?]

President Lee also made a remark to Prime Minister Han Seong-suk.

[President Lee Jae-myung: If we set it at that (2 billion won), I think we might be in big trouble. Is yours worth over 2 billion won? I don't own a home now.]

[Han Seong-suk, Prime Minister: I have one home. But it is worth over 2 billion won.]

Following the Cabinet meeting, the Blue House explained that the Bundang apartment President Lee put on the market last February is set to complete its sale following a preliminary contract.

President Lee explained that the claim that taxes are being imposed to control housing prices is not true. He stated that the primary goal is to rectify the distorted current real estate tax system, and that controlling housing prices is a secondary effect.

[President Lee Jae-myung: Because taxes are not performing their basic functions, they have become a factor that triggers real estate speculation.]

Analysts interpret the President's spontaneous gathering of opinions as an attempt to set the agenda by highlighting key issues ahead of the major real estate debate scheduled for next week.

(Video coverage: Jung Sang-bo, Yoon Hyung | Video editing: Yu Mi-ra)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.