Floor Leader Jung Jeom-sik: "Home sales frozen and jeonse wiped out… monthly rent surge spreading as a balloon effect"
"The paradox of strengthened actual residency and jeonse loan regulations… scrap the Oct. 15 measures and shift the policy stance"
"The President's son lives comfortably in the official residence… youth jeonse and wolse crisis must seem like someone else's problem"
"Regulations pushed up monthly rents"… demands converging on supply and regulation overhaul
The capital area's lease market is shaking. At the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 2nd, People Power Party Floor Leader Jung Jeom-sik urged, "The capital area is currently facing a jeonse and wolse crisis. The President must admit the failure of real estate policies and scrap the Oct. 15 measures first. Completely overhaul the real estate policy stance." He pointed out that the real estate measures introduced on October 15 of last year, which focused on strengthening actual residency obligations and tightening jeonse loans, created this market condition.
Floor Leader Jung's diagnosis is as follows: home sales have frozen, jeonse properties have completely dried up, and remaining demand has concentrated on monthly rent (wolse), causing monthly rents to skyrocket and spreading its impact from Seoul to Gyeonggi Province through a balloon effect. As a result of tightening actual residency requirements and putting up barriers to jeonse loans, the very method of securing a home has become more expensive. "Over the past year, the jeonse and wolse surge has intensified; is this really the normalization of the asset market?" he asked, also targeting a post about falling housing prices shared by the President on social media last weekend.
The weight of his remarks comes from the housing reality felt by the youth generation. He argued, "Since your son is living comfortably in the Hannam-dong official residence, the jeonse and wolse crisis faced by young people must seem like someone else's problem. Tell the President's second son to find a home to live in himself, whether through jeonse or wolse." His logic is that the strengthening of regulations is a structure that simply transfers the burden of landlords onto tenants. In a reality where the youth generation cannot even dream of purchasing a home, let alone secure a stable jeonse contract, voices questioning the effectiveness of these policies are growing louder.
The government imposed regulations to control prices, but the market instead changed the form of demand rather than the prices. If you cannot find a jeonse, you turn to wolse, and as wolse rises, large sums of money drain from young people's bank accounts every month. This is why critics argue that instead of lowering youth housing costs, the tightening of regulations has provided an excuse for monthly rent increases. There are arguments that the government and the ruling party should not dwell on price discourse, but rather respond with expanded supply and regulatory overhauls, with the first step being the re-evaluation of the Oct. 15 measures, which are even facing discussions of abolition.
