SH Sale Cost Disclosure, Oh Se-hoon "My Policy from 15 Years Ago" vs Park Young-sun "Riding on the Bandwagon"

Oh "Policies Announced After Taking Office as Seoul Mayor in 2006"
"Quietly Returned to Square One During Former Mayor Park's Term"

Park "Lack of Policy Conviction"
"Stop Outdated Copyright Complaints"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] As the real estate issue becomes a key point in the upcoming Seoul mayoral election in April, candidates from both ruling and opposition parties are focusing on related policies. Both candidates have early on emphasized expanding real estate supply to stabilize housing prices, but recent land speculation scandals involving employees of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) have necessitated additional measures to appease public anger. In response, Park Young-sun, the Democratic Party candidate, promised to disclose the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) sales cost, while Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party candidate, emphasized that disclosing SH sales costs was "my policy from 15 years ago." Park’s camp immediately rebutted, calling it "riding on the coattails."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 28th, Oh posted on Facebook, "Good policies seem to be able to 'go backward' even after time passes," stating that the SH sales cost disclosure mentioned by Park the previous day was a policy he introduced during his tenure as Seoul mayor 15 years ago.

Oh said, "Park proposed a pledge to transparently disclose the sales cost, design statements, contract details, and subcontract details of public housing supplied by SH Corporation for the housing stability of ordinary citizens. She said, 'Disclosing SH Corporation’s sales costs will act as a primer to reduce excessive profits of construction companies and developers, thereby affecting apartment price stabilization,' which is a correct statement," he began.

Oh then added, "The disclosure of sales costs for public housing supplied by SH Corporation, the price ceiling system, and, in addition, the country’s first apartment post-sale system were policies I announced and implemented abruptly in September 2006, just three months after I took office as Seoul mayor 15 years ago," pouring cold water on the matter.

He also blamed the previous mayor for failing to activate these policies.

Oh said, "At that time, I proposed to President Roh Moo-hyun to start disclosing apartment sales costs and implementing the post-sale system not only in Seoul but beginning with public enterprises and gradually expanding to private companies. However, President Roh did not accept it, saying public enterprises need to make some profit to build more houses. After my decision, he reluctantly followed, but when Mayor Park Won-soon took office, the policy was quietly reverted to the original state. Since then, SH’s sales prices have continued to rise," he said.

He continued, "It seems Park was unaware that SH Corporation’s sales cost disclosure (covering 62 items) and the post-sale system were first introduced in March 2007 with apartments in Jangji District, the first in Korea, and the subsequent developments," and added, "Policies and pledges do not have copyrights, so I will not call it 'plagiarism.' It takes courage to follow good policies, and it is a desirable thing," he mocked.

In response to these claims, Park’s camp immediately issued a statement, countering that "he failed to prevent the policy’s demise" and "lacked policy conviction." They also criticized, saying, "Now he is trying to 'ride on the coattails.'"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Spokesperson Park Sung-jun said, "Oh failed to prevent the downsizing and abolition of the 'sales cost disclosure' system during the Lee Myung-bak administration. He lacked policy conviction," and criticized, "Since then, neither Oh nor the People Power Party made any attempt to institutionalize 'sales cost disclosure' until Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party implemented the system in Gyeonggi Province in 2019."

Spokesperson Park pointed out, "Oh is now trying to 'ride on the coattails' of Park’s push for 'public housing sales cost disclosure.' He should stop the outdated copyright complaints."

He added, "It would be more appropriate for him to first make a conscience declaration about the ever-growing family’s 'Naegok-dong self-compensation' scandal," delivering a rebuke.

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