Unified Party Poll "July 10 Real Estate Measures Support 56%, Oppose 32%... Positive on Tax Increase"

Real Estate Brokerage Offices on the 31st / Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] The United Future Party's survey on public sentiment regarding real estate revealed that while the majority hold negative views toward the government's regulation-focused policies, there is significantly more support for recent measures targeting multi-homeowners, such as the strengthening of the comprehensive real estate tax. From the United Future Party's perspective, it is a self-assessment that a strategic alternative is needed to criticize the government and ruling party by focusing on real estate as a major target, while approaching tax burden relief cautiously.

The Yeouido Institute, the United Future Party's think tank, disclosed a report titled "Analysis of Public Perception on the Moon Jae-in Government's Real Estate Policy," which conducted a public opinion survey on the 10th with 1,259 respondents nationwide. It revealed that more than two-thirds have a negative perception of the real estate policy. Positive perception was limited to 30%. Compared to a survey conducted by the institute ten days earlier, negative perception increased by about 5 percentage points.

Most notably, regarding the '6.17' real estate measures, which include the expansion of speculative overheating zones and loan regulations, 55.6% responded that the measures would be 'ineffective,' which is double the 29.7% who said they would be 'effective.' This indicates a perception that government policies are not influencing housing price stabilization.

However, for the '7.10' real estate measures, which include strengthening the comprehensive real estate tax and raising capital gains tax, support was overwhelmingly higher at 56.0% compared to 32.2% opposition. The institute noted, "Evaluation of the 7.10 measures is still uncertain," adding, "Since the survey questions were focused on strengthening regulations on 'multi-homeowners,' awareness of tax burden due to increased taxation was likely relatively low."

They judged that an objective evaluation would be possible only after some time has passed, as the survey was conducted on the day the measures were announced. Nevertheless, it can be confirmed that the majority of public opinion agrees with the direction.

The institute pointed out, "While there is high public negativity toward regulation-heavy and inconsistent real estate policies that contradict market principles, there is positive public opinion toward strengthening tax and financial regulations to curb speculation by multi-homeowners (owners of high-priced homes)." Furthermore, "Negative public opinion toward the Moon Jae-in government's real estate tax strengthening policies is not as high as expected, and the urgency for tax burden relief is relatively weak." This suggests the need for caution in setting policy directions related to real estate taxation.

In fact, the survey showed that "resistance to real estate tax strengthening policies" was at 17%, ranking lower than housing supply shortages (33%) and inconsistent policies (25%). Regarding future policy priorities, "strengthening regulations on speculative loans" (49%) and "expanding supply" (46%) were considered more urgent than "activating transactions through tax cuts" (20%).

The Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) announced on the 29th that 40% of United Future Party lawmakers are multi-homeowners, with an average real estate price of 2.08 billion KRW, about twice that of the Democratic Party. This creates conditions where criticism of real estate tax strengthening could backfire.

In practice, while the United Future Party criticizes the "tax bomb," it places greater emphasis on expanding supply. The first measure in the United Future Party's plan announced on the same day was to supply 1 million homes over ten years starting in 2022. This is considered possible through lifting floor restrictions, increasing floor area ratios, and resuming redevelopment projects. Although tax burden relief was also proposed, it mainly targeted single-homeowners.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.