Yoo Seung-min: "Moon Administration Created Crazy Housing Prices and Now Blames the People?... Incompetence"

Former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seung-min. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] On the 28th, former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seung-min harshly criticized Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, for his public address on the real estate market, saying, "I have never seen such an irresponsible, incompetent, and ignorant government."

On the same day, Yoo posted on his Facebook under the title "Crazy housing prices. The Moon Jae-in government made the mistakes, and now they say it's the people's responsibility?" He said, "Stop making excuses, increase supply, lower taxes, and repeal the three lease laws. That is the solution to restore the market and stabilize housing prices and monthly rents."

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Hong held a joint briefing at the Government Seoul Office with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Financial Services Commission, and the National Police Agency titled "A Message to the People for Real Estate Market Stability."

At the briefing, he said, "Stabilizing the real estate market is not something the government can achieve alone. All participants in the real estate market, indeed all our citizens, must think together and cooperate. To prevent the so-called 'tragedy of the commons,' we all need to gather wisdom and collaborate for the community."

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, is delivering a joint briefing of government ministries related to real estate at the briefing room of the Government Seoul Office Building on the 28th, announcing a "Message to the People." [Image source=Yonhap News]

In response, former lawmaker Yoo said, "The people listening must be really baffled. For the past four years, they claimed 'housing supply is sufficient,' manipulated housing price and monthly rent statistics, created crazy housing prices through taxes and regulations, and caused crazy monthly rents with the three lease laws. Who is responsible? Isn't it President Moon Jae-in, the government, and the Democratic Party?"

He continued, "They show no intention of reflecting on their serious policy failures or presenting a completely new real estate policy, and now they are shifting the responsibility onto the people and the market. I really think that is unacceptable. What crime have the people committed? Is it a crime that people tried to buy before housing prices rose further because the Moon Jae-in government stubbornly clung to incompetent, arrogant, and dogmatic policies? What crime have the people committed who had to search for more distant and smaller monthly rentals because landlords asked them to vacate due to the three lease laws causing rent increases?"

He pointed out, "Housing prices soared crazily, and as the government rapidly raised official property prices, homeowners were hit with a tax bomb, which was directly passed on to monthly rents, causing them to rise further."

Also, referring to Deputy Prime Minister Hong's mention of the "tragedy of the commons," Yoo said, "The tragedy of the commons applies only to commons," and criticized, "It is shocking and speechless that the government of the Republic of Korea is this ignorant."

He added, "If it were about carbon neutrality, I could understand, but what tragedy of the commons is there in privately owned housing? If anything, it is not a tragedy of the commons but a situation where the government’s failure to earn the people's trust has driven everyone into a 'prisoner's dilemma' of looking out for themselves," and criticized, "By misusing the difficult economic term 'tragedy of the commons,' they want to say, 'The people also bear responsibility for the real estate problem.'"

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