Lee raises concerns over regulation allowing large-scale home purchases for rental

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a town hall meeting with residents at the exhibition and convention center in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Friday. Yonhap

President Lee Jae Myung on Sunday voiced concerns over the country's housing regulation that allows people to buy homes on a large scale for rental, as the government is set to end tax breaks for owners of multiple homes to stabilize the overheated property market in the Seoul metropolitan area.

In recent weeks, Lee has posted a series of messages on his social media account calling for measures to curb home prices, ahead of the planned end of a heavy capital gains tax exemption for multi-homeowners in May.

"I understand cases where housing is built specifically for rental purposes but it makes little sense that people can buy as many homes as they want simply by registering as rental business operators," Lee wrote on X.

"If individuals are allowed to buy hundreds of houses, shortages are inevitable even if we build tens of thousands of homes," he added.