▲ Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon delivers a congratulatory speech at the 'AI Seoul Tech Research Support Project' certificate ceremony held at Seoul City Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, on June 19.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has launched a direct critique of Kim Yong-beom, the Presidential Policy Chief, who recently described the South Korean economy as experiencing an "all-time boom" and suggested adjustments to real estate taxation.
In a post on Facebook titled "It is not a last resort, but a measure that should not be used," Mayor Oh stated, "As soon as the local elections concluded, the government has finally brought out the card of strengthening property and capital gains taxes." He added, "They are determined to walk the failed path again, attempting to control housing prices solely through taxes while blocking supply."
Mayor Oh pointed out, "The Presidential Policy Chief argues that tax policies must be tightened to prevent liquidity from the semiconductor boom from flowing into real estate, but he has fundamentally misdiagnosed the cause." He continued, "If funds are flowing into real estate, it is not because taxes are low, but due to anxiety over supply shortages, concentrated housing demand, and expectations for future value."
He emphasized, "What the government needs to do now is not to drop a 'tax bomb,' but to respond with robust supply to meet demand and the normalization of reconstruction and redevelopment projects."
Mayor Oh also criticized the claim made by National Tax Service Commissioner Lim Kwang-hyun, who suggested that providing selling opportunities to multi-home owners receiving tax benefits through the registered rental housing system would have the effect of supplying 68,000 apartment units in Seoul. Oh dismissed this as a "misjudgment stemming from a lack of understanding of market conditions."
"This merely changes the ownership of existing homes and does not increase the total housing stock," Oh stressed. "In fact, if rental properties are converted to owner-occupied homes, it will only cause rental listings to disappear from the market."
He added, "The number of jeonse (long-term deposit rental) listings in Seoul has already decreased by more than 30% compared to last year. If the tax burden is increased further, landlords will withhold their properties from the market and pass the costs onto tenants, accelerating a 'monthly rent crisis' that will only erode the disposable income of young people and the working class."
"Real estate policy is judged by its results. We clearly remember the disastrous failure during the past Moon Jae-in administration, which failed to curb housing prices and only drove tenants into a hellish jeonse crisis," Mayor Oh said, urging the government to "break away from the dogma of suppressing the market with taxes and shift toward the realistic path of expanding supply."
He concluded by proposing, "Before full-scale discussions on tax reform begin, I request that the President listen to the opinions of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. I have no intention of engaging in political debate. Based on the accurate field data and the reality of declining jeonse supply that Seoul has accumulated, I will explain in detail the ripple effects that this tax reform will bring."
(Photo: Provided by Seoul Metropolitan Government, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.