Seoul home prices began rising right when President Lee took office, says Mayor Oh Se-hoon
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon directly rebuked President Lee Jae-myung on Facebook on the 18th, writing, "At least get your perception of reality right," after the president blamed soaring Seoul home prices on reduced redevelopment permits and construction starts at a press conference. At the press conference, Lee said housing permits and construction starts in Seoul had been cut in half since 2022.
Oh immediately posted on Facebook to rebut the remarks head-on. "The President cannot possibly be unaware of the process and time required for a housing project to reach construction," he said, adding that "no matter how much he wishes to deny it, it remains a fact that it was Mayor Park Won-soon who scrapped redevelopment and reconstruction projects across Seoul, wiping out that process entirely."
On the timing of the price surge, Oh argued, "Anyone can see from the data alone that Seoul home prices, which had been trending downward toward stability after my inauguration as the eighth elected mayor, turned upward around the time of President Lee Jae-myung's inauguration." He also countered, "It is a fact that the point when prices, which had stabilized again after the land transaction permit zones were re-designated, began to jump also coincides with the president's inauguration." He went on, "The President keeps refusing to acknowledge these facts, repeating at every opportunity that construction starts declined after Oh Se-hoon took office," and added, "If Seoul's rising home prices are my fault, then why was I re-elected mayor, and why does the president's approval rating in Seoul keep falling?"
Oh assessed that "Seoul home prices are currently on the steepest and longest uptrend of any administration in history." He noted, "Unfortunately, the President seems to be relying only on selective data. He appears to regard the 'catch-up price increases' in Seoul's outlying areas as a temporary phenomenon as well." The essence of the problem, he said, is that the housing ladder for young people and newlywed couples is on the verge of collapse.
"With loans unavailable, people cannot even contemplate buying a home, and as jeonse options dry up, they are giving up on life in Seoul," Oh said. "Pushing young people out of Seoul and dashing the middle class's hopes of owning a home cannot be called balanced development," he argued, adding, "That approach will never revive the provinces — it will only leave Seoul dead and young people's futures dead with it."
Criticizing the day's press conference, Oh said, "Seoul citizens today did not hear the answer they wanted from the president. Instead of a pledge to overhaul his flawed housing policy, all they heard was blame-shifting — that it's all Oh Se-hoon's fault." He added, "I suspected his aides might be feeding the president false information, but watching today's press conference, I changed my mind. The President himself is trapped in a false conviction, rejecting reality."
Oh urged, "Blame Oh Se-hoon a hundred times if you like. But of those hundred, just once, please truly look at the reality of young people despairing because they cannot find a home, and newlywed couples giving up on ownership at the threshold of a loan. And please first rein in your overconfidence." He concluded, "Before citizens' lives collapse any further, the President's own mind must be completely reset."
The rebuke came as President Lee pledged to speed up land development and urban redevelopment projects, with the Prime Minister's Office conducting daily checks and the president receiving weekly progress reports — a sign that conflict over metropolitan housing policy among the ruling and opposition parties and the city government is set to widen.
