Government Faces Intense Criticism Over Housing Welfare Policies

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] Problems with public housing and residential welfare operated by the government are coming to light. Controversy has arisen over public housing and residential welfare policies during this year's national audit.

On the 8th, during the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee's audit of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), real estate policies including public housing and residential welfare were put under scrutiny.

Sim Sang-jung, a Justice Party lawmaker, pointed out issues with LH's residential welfare policies. Lawmaker Sim stated, "LH focuses on state-led real estate development while residential welfare is neglected," and criticized, "The role of LH needs to be comprehensively readjusted."

Sim also questioned, "The government said it would open an era of 2 million long-term public rental housing units by 2022 and claims to have supplied 1.36 million units so far, but the statistics are inflated. They include 10-year long-term rentals and jeonse (key money deposit) rentals to claim 1.3 million long-term public rental units, but in reality, there are only 850,000 units. They still need to build 1.1 million more units? is that feasible?"

In response, Byun Chang-heum, LH President, said, "We have tried to supply more long-term rental housing than any other government," and added, "I understand that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is setting a direction to exclude non-long-term rentals from the statistics."

Opposition lawmakers also intensified their attacks on the Moon Jae-in administration's real estate policies.

Kim Hee-guk of the People Power Party criticized, "According to reports, this year the apartment price in Seoul is 1.03 billion won, which is a 64% increase or about 400 million won compared to 2017. However, the responsible minister is stubbornly lying, claiming it only rose by 14%."

Song Seok-jun, from the same party, raised his voice to President Byun, asking, "Did you properly read public sentiment during Chuseok?" and said, "Ordinary citizens are suffering due to unprecedented housing price surges and the disappearance of jeonse rental options."

Lee Jong-bae, also from the same party, pointed out, "According to opinion polls, the most inadequate policy of the Moon Jae-in administration was the real estate policy."

The quality gap between rental housing and sale housing is also becoming an issue. During the LH national audit, the quality controversy of LH rental housing was repeatedly mentioned. One lawmaker even aired a report at the audit session showing people reciting multiplication tables through a wall.

A representative problem pointed out during the LH audit was the quality difference between rental housing and sale housing. For example, rental housing used cheaper products in 25 categories compared to general housing. In the case of entrance door handles, rental housing installed lever-type handles priced at 34,000 won, while general housing had digital handles costing 208,000 won.

For bathroom toilets, rental housing used a standard toilet worth 90,000 won, but general housing installed bidets worth 500,000 won. Based on a 36㎡ unit, rental housing uses finishing materials that are 3.65 million won cheaper than general housing. Including finishing construction costs, the price difference expands to 6.61 million won.

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