Moon Administration Public Housing 'Fake' Controversy... Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport "Not True"

Interior of the public rental housing visited by President Moon.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Gang-wook] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport rebutted on the 25th against the controversy raised by civic groups regarding 'fake' public housing, stating, "All types including jeonse rental are legitimate public rental housing that allows stable residence for more than 10 years," and that "the claims are not true."

The Ministry released a clarification on the same day, stating, "All public rental housing supplied by the current government (a total of 1.584 million units as of 2019) are 100% public rental housing that allows stable residence for more than 10 years."

The Ministry explained, "Under the Public Housing Special Act, public rental housing includes not only permanent rental and national rental but also Happy Housing, sale-conversion public rental, purchase rental, and jeonse rental," adding, "All these housing types allow stable residence for more than 10 years."

It further explained, "Happy Housing is used as rental housing for 30 years and is supplied at 60-80% of market price to youth, newlyweds, and vulnerable groups, guaranteeing rental periods up to 20 years depending on the group, thereby contributing to long-term housing stability."

Additionally, the Ministry stated, "Jeonse rental and purchase rental housing utilize existing homes in urban areas, allowing tenants to live for up to 20 years at rental rates of 30-40% of market price."

In particular, the Ministry explained that jeonse rental operates under a structure where tenants select preferred housing, LH signs a jeonse contract with the landlord, and then re-rents to the tenant, with LH also responsible for housing management, distinguishing it from simple deposit support products.

It added that 10-year sale-conversion rentals allow stable residence for up to 10 years and are excluded from the public rental housing stock upon sale conversion.

The Ministry analyzed, "The current government has been steadily supplying various types of public rental housing according to the 'Housing Welfare Roadmap' announced in November 2017, and last year supplied 150,000 units, 9,000 more than the target (141,000 units), achieving a long-term public rental housing stock rate of about 8%."

Earlier, the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) held a press conference stating, "The government claims that the long-term public housing stock increased by 328,000 units from the end of 2016 to the end of 2019, but 85% of these are jeonse rental, so the proportion of genuine public housing is very low."

CCEJ labeled purchase rental and Happy Housing as 'fake public housing,' and 10-year sale-conversion and jeonse rental as 'pseudo public housing.'

CCEJ considers only permanent, 50-year, national rental, and long-term jeonse as 'genuine public housing,' but among the 328,000 public housing units increased over the past three years, only 15%, or 48,000 units, fall into this category.

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