Where to draw line on Lee's push to bar officials with multiple homes from housing policymaking?

President Lee Jae Myung presides over a weekly Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. Yonhap

President Lee Jae Myung is pushing to exclude officials who own multiple homes from participating in housing policymaking, with analysts backing the move on credibility grounds while underscoring the need for clear criteria.

Multi-home ownership among high-ranking bureaucrats has long been a source of controversy for housing reform in any administration, as such behavior is blamed for rising prices, fueling controversy over a perceived double standard.

Barring such officials is crucial for credibility and transparency, political and real estate analysts said. However, they stressed that well-defined criteria are needed to determine which officials should be covered by the directive.

They warned that without such guidelines, the move could lead to setbacks due to manpower shortage, with hundreds of officials potentially affected.

Apartments in southern Seoul are seen from Lotte World Tower in the city's Songpa District, March 17. Yonhap

“The president has a justifiable rationale — ‘I’ve sold mine, so you should too’ — in pushing bureaucrats with more than one home to sell, or be kept out of housing policy,” Shin Yul, a political science professor, said.

Kwon Dae-jung, a real estate professor at Hansung University, agreed, saying, “Since the president is selling his home, it makes sense for bureaucrats to sell theirs so they don’t risk being out of line with their duties.”

The analysts referred to the president’s decision to put his only home up for sale on Feb. 27, followed by a March 19 social media post outlining the directive to the presidential office and the Cabinet.

The directive targets officials with multiple homes — mainly those who own high-value homes wherein they do not reside and those with excessive real estate holdings — barring them “from all stages of housing and real estate policymaking, including discussion, drafting, reporting and approval.”

While Lee and first lady Kim Hea Kyung jointly owned a single home in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, it became a political line of attack by the main opposition party, as he now resides at Cheong Wa Dae during his five-year term.

The experts differed over the criteria, with Kwon taking the most aggressive stance, saying that all officials should be targeted regardless of rank or assignment.

“There should be no exceptions, and that’s what the president wants,” Kwon said, as he referred to Lee’s March 19 social media post.

The president, apparently in a critical tone, referred to Korea as a “real estate republic,” saying, “Stabilizing real estate, particularly housing prices, is crucial to the success of this administration and will determine the fate of Korea.”

“There must not be even a 0.1 percent flaw or loophole,” the president said.

Shin suggested a softer criterion, noting that the directive should apply to all levels of officials but be restricted to those in real estate-related administrative, regulatory or tax roles.

“I am not revealing the names of the ministries, since the president is the one to decide,” Shin said, referring to circulating ideas on which organizations should be targeted.

These include the Ministry of Finance and Economy, Ministry of Planning and Budget, National Tax Service, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service.

Kim Je-kyung, chief consultant at real estate agency Tumi, said that not all officials, but all presidential appointees, particularly Cheong Wa Dae secretaries, ministers and vice ministers, should be put under close scrutiny.

“The water upstream must be clear for the water downstream to be clear,” Kim said, citing a Korean proverb. “If they themselves cannot follow the rules, can they really expect others to?”