Rising Housing Prices Under Moon Jae-in Blamed on Park Geun-hye? Experts Refute as "Misinterpretation, Actually the Opposite"

The view of apartments in Seoul city seen from the 63 Building on August 11. President Moon Jae-in said at the last senior secretaries and aides meeting, "The upward trend in housing prices has begun to show signs of calming down."
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy reporters Seunggon Han and Hana Na] While a member of the Democratic Party of Korea claimed that the cause of the sharp rise in housing prices during the Moon Jae-in administration was due to the inadequate designation of housing site districts during the previous Park Geun-hye administration, some experts have refuted this as a misinterpretation, stating, "The housing price surge during the Moon Jae-in administration was because housing supply was blocked in Seoul."

At the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) audit held on the 8th, So Byung-hoon, a member of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, analyzed the designation performance of housing sites by past administrations submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and pointed out, "The Moon Jae-in administration designated 36.67 million square meters of housing sites nationwide from 2017 to 2019, whereas the Park Geun-hye administration designated only 5.53 million square meters from 2013 to 2016, which is just 15% of the Moon Jae-in administration's amount."

So said, "The poor performance in housing site designation during the Park Geun-hye administration was due to the 9.1 measures announced in 2014," and claimed, "(The Park Geun-hye administration) announced the abolition of the Housing Site Development Promotion Act and the suspension of large-scale public housing site designations by the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), which had an impact."

He added, "Public housing sites rapidly ran out in just four years," and pointed out, "As public housing sites decreased, housing supply also began to decline, with housing supply reaching 260,000 units in 2015 but dropping by 100,000 units to 150,000 units in 2018."

He also said, "The bureaucrats who caused today's housing supply shortage are still holding key positions in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and its affiliated organizations," and warned, "If these bureaucrats who implemented the wrong policies at the time are not strongly held accountable and the bureaucratic society is not reformed, government policy failures will be repeated."

However, some experts offered a different view on the current housing price surge, countering So's argument by saying, "The rise in housing prices during the Moon Jae-in administration was not due to a lack of housing site districts on the outskirts of the metropolitan area but because housing supply was blocked in Seoul," and argued, "It seems they did not consider that by completely blocking redevelopment in Seoul, the demand for new homes could not be met, and this phenomenon spread to the outskirts of the metropolitan area."

According to 'Real Estate Insider,' which provides housing-related statistics, the number of housing units entering the market in Seoul remained around 50,000 units from 2015 to 2020 but sharply decreased to 25,000 units in 2021, 15,000 units in 2022, and further down to 9,000 units in 2023.

Another expert claimed, "Considering that it takes about three years for housing to be completed after approval, it can be seen that the number of permits began to decline from 2017 when the Moon Jae-in administration took office, and the effects are still ongoing."

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