Cheong Wa Dae Explains President's Apartment Sale, Opposition Criticizes "Sly Deal"

[Anchor]

Cheong Wa Dae has stepped forward for consecutive days to address the controversy surrounding the establishment of a collateral mortgage in the process of President Lee Jae-myung and his spouse selling their apartment. While refuting claims of preferential treatment for reconstruction designations as absurd and explaining that it was merely a consideration for the buyer's circumstances, the opposition bloc has continued its offensive, calling it a sly transaction.

Reporter Park Yerim has the details.

[Reporter]

Cheong Wa Dae held a Q&A style YouTube broadcast today (July 22) featuring a deputy spokesperson and a real estate professor under the title, "The Truth Behind the President's Home Sale."

The explanation aimed to clarify that President Lee Jae-myung and his spouse selling their apartment in Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province, for 2.9 billion won and setting a collateral mortgage of 1.77 billion won for the buyer was "consideration for the buyer" to successfully succeed the union membership status for the apartment slated for reconstruction.

[Han Moon-do / Professor, Department of Real Estate, Seoul Digital University: If registration is delayed, they cannot receive the occupancy right. Therefore, considering that, the president registered the title in advance and established a collateral mortgage for the balance, which is how you can view this.]

[An Gui-ryung / Deputy Spokesperson, Cheong Wa Dae: How does this differ from a bank loan?]

[Han Moon-do / Professor, Department of Real Estate, Seoul Digital University: It is essentially the same action, just with different subjects of the transaction.]

It was also explained that President Lee and his spouse decided not to receive interest for delaying the buyer's balance payment by a few months.

When it was pointed out that waiving interest could constitute a gift, Cheong Wa Dae stated in a separate official statement after the broadcast that "the gift tax issue will be processed in accordance with relevant regulations."

Even last night, Cheong Wa Dae explained that "claims of a private connection with the buyer are groundless," and that the designation of the apartment as a leading district for reconstruction took place in November 2024 during the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, calling the claims of preferential treatment for reconstruction designation "utter nonsense."

The People Power Party criticized the move, stating, "It is a sly trick where they shackled the public with loan regulations, yet received a self-exempted pass through the shortcut of a collateral mortgage."

They added that "it is deception to bypass the very loan regulations that he himself created."

Amid high-intensity loan regulations, this type of "private-to-private collateral mortgage transaction" method has been utilized in areas such as Gangnam in Seoul.

[Gangnam Real Estate Agent: It has existed for a long time. Because loans are blocked, there were cases where parties agreed to such methods during high-priced transactions, and now it has surfaced to the public eye due to the president's case...]

President Lee will preside over a national grand debate on real estate policy tomorrow.

Attention is focused on whether he will express his stance regarding this apartment sale or loan regulations.

(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News)
Reported by Jung Sang-bo and Ha Ryong | Video by Yu Mi-ra | Graphics by Han Song-yeon
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.