Why Lee Jae Myung is pressuring multi-home owners with tighter regulations

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a meeting with senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

President Lee Jae Myung has turned to social media to openly criticize those who own multiple homes, a practice he argued has been driving up prices and deepening housing supply shortages.

The pressure centers on resuming a long-pending tax policy that could impose a heavy capital gains tax of up to 82.5 percent on houses sold after May 9. The move is in line with the fourth measure in a series of housing market regulations issued by the Lee administration on Jan. 29, which aims to provide 60,000 homes in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.

The president’s criticism may be justifiable given the widening inequality, growing household debt, excessive preference for real estate as an investment and other socioeconomic problems related to properties, according to economists and housing experts on Thursday.

Lee’s social media campaign, however, also reflects political considerations with regard to securing more tax revenue to support his expansionary fiscal policy and the upcoming local elections in June, these experts said.

They viewed that the president appears to be avoiding linking these political issues directly to real estate because doing so could trigger public backlash, and is instead framing them as a push for housing stabilization.

Tourists overlook apartment complexes from Mount Nam in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

Collecting more taxes through housing market regulations?

“The foremost reason the president is intensifying pressure on multi-home owners is to make them sell their houses, increase supply and help ease prices,” said Kwon Dae-jung, a professor of real estate at Sogang University. “The resulting transactions would generate acquisition taxes, capital gains taxes and other levies, all of which could contribute to revenue that can be used for good causes.”

Kwon referred to a string of posts Lee recently shared on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

“Moving to a higher-value property? Let me be clear, it will not be in your interest to do so unless it is for residential use,” Lee wrote on Thursday, sharing a news article highlighting rising demand for buyers trading up into higher-tier neighborhoods as the May 9 deadline approaches.

In an earlier post made on Tuesday, addressed to “those who feel sorry for the tears of hundreds of thousands of multi-home owners seeking unearned gains from real estate speculation,” he wrote, “For the sake of a rational and prosperous country, we will do whatever it takes to crack down on ruinous real estate speculation.”

In another message on Tuesday, Lee wrote, “Selling sooner rather than holding on will likely be more advantageous than selling later.”

He supported his claim by citing a news article reporting an increase in property listings in Seoul’s affluent, speculation-prone Gangnam area, driven by a heavier capital gains tax burden.

Inha University economics professor Shin Il-soon offered a positive assessment of the president’s social media campaign, saying, “Several past governments failed to follow through on housing policy despite being on the right track, but unlike them, Lee’s unwavering determination is expected to help improve confidence in the housing market.”

Asking not to be named, a real estate professor said the campaign “implicitly reveals that Lee is rather unnerved by possible failure after his first three packages of regulations had little impact.”

The professor noted that housing prices have continued rising despite the regulations announced last year on June 27, Sept. 7 and Oct. 15.

These measures included a cap on housing loans of 600 million won ($408,000), an annual housing supply of 270,000 units — totaling 1.35 million through 2030 in Seoul and the greater capital region — and the expansion of speculation zones to cover all of Seoul and parts of southern Gyeonggi Province.

Nevertheless, the average apartment price in Seoul surpassed 1.5 billion won for the first time in December 2025, just 5 months after exceeding 1.4 billion won in July 2025.

“The president will get more anxious as the government plans to spend more in the name of stabilizing public livelihoods,” the professor said, adding, “Especially considering the local elections lie ahead.”

The 2026 budget was set at a record 727.9 trillion won, marking an 8.1 percent increase from 2025, when the government’s temporary borrowing of 164.5 trillion won from the Bank of Korea was the second-largest in history.

“Under the circumstances, openly targeting multi-home owners for more taxes is less likely to trigger public backlash than raising value-added tax, fuel taxes or utility fees that could affect households nationwide,” another university professor said, also under the condition of anonymity.

Kim Je-kyung, a chief consultant at real estate agency Tumi, said the speculation around the president’s possible anxiety was plausible.

“The 60,000 new homes in the fourth policy measures, announced on Jan. 29, partly overlap with the second policy announced on Sept. 7,” he said, adding that “it may explain the president’s push on multi-home owners to make more supply available ahead of the local elections.”