[Initial Insight] Last Year Was Real Estate, This Year Is 'LH'

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] The hottest topic in every KakaoTalk chatroom among acquaintances these days is undoubtedly LH. When an image titled ‘This Year’s New Job Ranking Chart’ was posted, placing judges and LH employees in the top tier, and famous law firm lawyers and ‘people whose siblings are LH employees’ in the second tier, many couldn’t hide their bitter smiles, calling it ‘laughably sad.’ If last year’s biggest community topic was the ‘real estate crisis,’ this year seems destined to be all about LH.

The LH speculation scandal is a comprehensive ‘moral hazard’ in that LH employees allegedly used advance knowledge of the planned 3rd New Town sites?once the ‘dream of the homeless’?to speculate on nearby areas or development sites. The biggest issue is that public enterprise employees, who should work for the public good, used insider information for investment. Particularly, LH is a public corporation that champions ‘housing stability for ordinary citizens,’ and the public housing sites developed by LH are meant to realize this goal. However, this incident involves LH employees actively threatening the housing stability of ordinary citizens. In the past, LH faced criticism for focusing more on private sales than public sales, accused of ‘land and housing trading rather than ensuring housing stability for the common people,’ but this issue is on a different level.

Public trust in public enterprises has declined. We implicitly expect public enterprises to be more equitable and fair to the public than private companies, but the LH scandal has shattered even that faint trust. The candid remarks, presumed to be from employees, revealed through anonymous communities used by office workers, are even more revealing. Comments like “If you don’t like it, quit,” “This is our welfare benefit,” and “You’re just nitpicking because you didn’t study well” offer a glimpse into the moral hazard spreading within LH.

President Moon Jae-in’s statement about rooting out speculators and eradicating the problem is welcome but sounds somewhat hollow. Would those who once flaunted their expertise by planting dense willow trees just to claim compensation really have been so careless? Some cynics say that all the escape routes have already been prepared, and only ‘small fry’ will be caught in the investigation results.

Speculation suspicions are spreading not only among LH employees but also to members of the National Assembly. Regardless of party affiliation, these suspicions unfold as ‘a family member of a lawmaker purchased land near a development site, but the lawmaker themselves was unaware.’ Why is it that no family member of mine has ever bought land near a development area without my knowledge? It’s just a curiosity. Seeing some lawmakers under suspicion consistently respond with “I didn’t know” and “I will dispose of it,” some citizens worry that LH employees who speculated will similarly rely on such excuses and eventually receive only ‘light punishments’ and be released.

What frustrated ordinary citizens most last year was the despair of losing ‘their own home.’ Many who became involuntary refugees due to skyrocketing prices by hundreds of millions of won within days and rent prices rising to the level of house prices are now despairing as even the 3rd New Town is tainted by speculation. This is why the announcement of the first full-scale investigation results by the government joint investigation team this afternoon is so important. We hope for thorough and transparent results that meet the public’s expectations and standards. If not, the LH scandal could evolve into a black hole that drains the momentum of the Moon administration’s last year in office.

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