President Lee steps up push to end multi-homeowner tax breaks

Lee brands multi-home ownership ‘nation-ruining speculation,’ calls tax-deferral window ‘last chance’

President Lee Jae Myung speaks at a meeting of senior secretaries and aides held at Cheong Wa Dae on Friday. (Yonhap)

President Lee Jae Myung over the weekend doubled down on his push to end tax breaks for owners of multiple homes, saying the government has “plenty of tools” — legal and political — to stabilize housing prices.

Lee has repeatedly made the case on X, formerly known as Twitter, following his New Year news conference on Jan. 23, and his language has grown increasingly sharp.

Lee labeled the practice of holding multiple homes without living in them as "nation-ruining speculation," while singling out a media report that opposed tighter rules on multi-homeowners.

"If you call yourselves the media, why on earth are you going so far as to side with speculation that ruins the country?" Lee wrote in a post at 7:03 a.m. Sunday, linking to the article.

"Trying to put the government in a bind by siding with multiple-homeowners — isn’t that something only a low-grade, self-interest-seeking group would do, one that says, ‘As long as we can attack the other side, it doesn’t matter if the country is ruined’?"

Lee called the roughly 100 days remaining in the current tax-deferral period a “last chance” for multi-homeowners when brushing aside criticism from the main opposition People Power Party, which has questioned his confidence in stabilizing the real-estate market.

Lashing out at the party, Lee said in a post at 11:49 p.m. on Saturday, "There are people who fail to understand this properly, like kindergarteners still learning how to speak."

Lee's post followed comments from the People Power Party on X on Saturday morning, denouncing Lee's remarks and insisting that “normalizing the real estate market is far easier — and far more important — than reaching a Kospi level of 5,000.”

The president's rebuttal on Saturday night stressed, "Rather than opposing government policy and ending up worse off, I urge that the opportunity not be missed while it remains. Take advantage of the tax relief and resolve multiple-home ownership."

Lee went on to reiterate that "there are plenty of legal and political tools at its disposal to stabilize housing prices."

"The reality is that until now, the most effective and forceful measures have not been used due to political calculations," Lee said. "Trusting the people and stepping away from political advantage and disadvantage, this is certainly not an impossible thing."

The Lee administration had repeatedly pledged to end the temporary exemption for the higher capital gains tax on multi-homeowners and, in principle, reinstate it as of May 10. The surcharge has been on hold since May 2022, when the Yoon Suk Yeol administration introduced a one-year exemption and has since been renewed annually.

The current measure waives a surcharge of up to 30 percentage points for owners of two or more homes in regulated areas. If the tax returns, it could increase their tax burden two to three times. For those with three homes, the effective rate could reach 82.5 percent, including local taxes.

Ads for officetel units are posted at a real estate office in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Wednesday, amid a 12-month rise in Seoul’s officetel prices. (Yonhap)

Lee, opposition clash over housing policy

The People Power Party has intensified its criticism of the Lee administration’s housing policy, as the real-estate agenda spills over into a broader political clash between the two main parties.

"If normalizing the real estate market is really that easy, the public can only be dumbfounded by the president’s grasp of reality as to why it has still not been achieved," the opposition party said in a commentary issued by Park Sung-hoon, the party’s senior spokesperson.

People Power Party senior spokesperson Rep. Choi Bo-yun said Sunday that "rather than calmly explaining policy, the attitude of shaking public opinion with incendiary slogans is deeply inappropriate for a president."

Choi emphasized the government "cannot cool overheated housing prices by treating housing choices and asset formation as 'targets of crackdown,'" denouncing Lee for "pouring out intimidatory remarks targeting homeowners."

"The Seoul metropolitan housing-price problem cannot be solved through public supply alone," she said, referring to the Lee administration’s Thursday announcement of plans to provide public land for the construction of 60,000 housing units.

"The fastest and most realistic solution is to ease regulations and revitalize private-led redevelopment and reconstruction."

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea rejected calls for deregulation in a briefing by floor spokesperson Rep. Kim Hyung-jung on Sunday.

"The outcomes of such deregulation have always been nothing but speculative frenzies and the displacement of original residents," she said.

"To insist on a past approach proven to have failed as a 'solution' is, in the end, an intention to pave the way for speculative capital."