Yoon Hee-sook: "Byun Chang-heum's claim that Seoul housing shortage is psychological concern is irresponsible"

Yoon Hee-sook, member of the People Power Party./Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] Yoon Heesook, a member of the People Power Party, expressed concern over Byun Changheum, the nominee for Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, who made remarks suggesting that "housing supply in Seoul is not insufficient but merely a psychological concern."

On the 7th, Yoon posted on her Facebook, stating about nominee Byun, "What is worrisome is that in a recent interview with a media outlet, he stated that 'housing supply in Seoul is not insufficient but only a psychological concern.' He is known as a key figure who participated in the late Park Wonsoon (Seoul) mayor’s camp, dismantling New Town and redevelopment projects to reduce supply and shifting to urban regeneration projects," she said.

Yoon explained, "The nominee’s judgment that housing supply in Seoul is not insufficient carries significant implications for future matters. According to a research report commissioned by the Seoul Metropolitan Council, the amount supplied recently is far less than the annual new supply needed to maintain Seoul’s population amid household diversification trends. Between 2016 and 2018, about 120,000 units per year were needed, but only about 80,000 units were supplied, resulting in over 70,000 people being pushed out of Seoul in 2018 alone."

She continued, "If the original goal was to relocate Seoul’s population to Gyeonggi Province to reduce overcrowding in Seoul, this is not a particularly bad outcome. However, the responsibility for intensifying competition in Seoul’s housing market and causing price increases during this process must be openly acknowledged and the policy evaluated accordingly. To incite psychological concerns about supply and then claim that people are just feeling it wrong is pure irresponsibility," she criticized.

Regarding nominee Byun’s past co-authored book, Unequal Korea, Dreaming of a Welfare State, where he mentioned that "the high support rate of elderly people for conservative parties is because they expect to increase the value of their housing assets through conservative parties’ development projects and deregulation," Yoon said, "It is personally untrustworthy to have such a firm conviction about people’s inner motives, but ultimately, this is just his individual insight."

She added, "I do not think there is a need to excessively worry about the nominee based on his past personal thoughts or statements. However, as the head of the main ministry responsible for the real estate market, which has been devastated over the past three and a half years, the most important capability now is not political engineering or religious belief," and urged, "I expect a spirit of practical truth-seeking based on data-driven problem recognition and, if necessary, a bold revision of policies he once led."

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