Lee's approval rating hits record low since inauguration: poll
President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a meeting at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, Wednesday, to explore ways to nurture advanced future industries, including small modular reactors, nuclear fusion and aerospace. Yonhap
President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating fell to the lowest level since his inauguration, a poll showed Thursday.
In a National Barometer Survey (NBS) conducted from Monday to Wednesday, Lee's approval rating stood at 49 percent, down 4 percentage points from the previous poll conducted two weeks earlier.
It marks the first time his approval rating fell below 50 percent in the biweekly survey.
The result came after another local pollster, Realmeter, said Lee's approval rating fell to the lowest point since his inauguration in June 2025 in its weekly survey released earlier this week.
Realmeter had attributed the decline to several factors, including the government's proposed property tax revision and controversy surrounding a recently passed revision to the Criminal Procedure Act that strips prosecutors of their authority to conduct direct investigations.
The new tax adjustments seek to impose a heavier tax burden on owners of high-end homes and homeowners who do not reside in their properties, as part of efforts to stabilize the housing market.
Critics, however, have raised concerns that the measure could instead increase uncertainty in the housing market and result in the increased tax burden being passed on to tenants.
Disapproval of Lee's performance rose 6 percentage points to 43 percent in the NBS poll.
On the government's real estate policies, 56 percent of respondents said the current administration was doing a poor job, while 34 percent gave positive assessments.
The poll also showed that 46 percent supported the government's property tax revision plan, compared with 41 percent who opposed it.
When asked about its impact, 55 percent expected the revision to drive up "jeonse" and monthly rental prices, while 27 percent expected little change and 8 percent predicted a decline. Jeonse is a unique Korean housing rental system in which tenants make a large lump-sum deposit that is fully returned at the end of the lease.
In the same poll, support for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) remained unchanged from the previous survey at 40 percent, while that of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) rose 2 percentage points to 23 percent.
The DPK had higher support than the PPP across all age groups except those in their 20s and younger, and in all regions except the southeastern city of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.