Seoul mayor pitches 3-point housing fix, opposes long-term ownership tax deduction overhaul

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon is drawing attention after billing himself as a "top real estate tutor" for two consecutive days. Having been denied the floor at the first Cabinet meeting since the launch of the ninth elected administration, Oh used a video to lay out what the Seoul Metropolitan Government sees as the problems with the current government's policies — and how to fix them.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Thursday it had published a video titled "Top-Tutor Mayor, Part 2: A Real Estate Prescription Delivered to the Lee Jae Myung Administration — Here's How to Solve the Housing Crisis" on the mayor's official website and the city's social broadcast channel Live Seoul.

In the roughly 11-minute video, Oh outlined his solutions for housing stability and supply.

Oh presented three proposals: aggressive housing supply centered on private redevelopment and reconstruction projects — what he called "just supply it" (닥공); a revival of private rental housing; and tax reform for single-homeowners and long-term holders whose tax burdens have surged due to rising publicly assessed prices.

He said the private sector had accounted for 92 percent of housing completions over the past three years. He added that to expand housing supply, deregulation focused on the public sector must be paired with extending supply-promotion measures to private redevelopment and reconstruction projects.

To that end, Oh said the loan-to-value ratio for relocation loans tied to redevelopment and reconstruction projects should be raised to 70 percent, and restrictions on transferring membership status in redevelopment and reconstruction associations should be temporarily eased for three years.

He also recommended raising the legal ceiling on floor-area ratios for private redevelopment and reconstruction projects by 1.2 times, and adjusting the share of rental housing required in redevelopment projects from the current 50 percent down to 30 percent — in line with reconstruction projects — to improve project viability.

Oh also said rental housing providers should be seen "not as targets of regulation, but as entities supplying stable jeonse and monthly rent housing," adding that lending restrictions on purchase-type rental operators and limits on their exclusion from the comprehensive real estate tax should be eased.

In addition, Oh recommended freezing the fair market value ratio for the comprehensive real estate tax at its current level, maintaining the long-term ownership special deduction, and adjusting the tax base for property and comprehensive real estate taxes to reflect inflation — all to ease the burden on single-homeowners and long-term holders hit by rising publicly assessed prices.

Oh also outlined the city's comprehensive housing stability plan for residents without homes, aimed at lowering housing costs, as well as its nine-task rapid housing supply initiative targeting 310,000 ground-breakings by 2031.

"Even while waiting for the government's decision, Seoul's shovels will not stop," he said. "Seoul will push ahead first with what it can do on its own, and turn the housing residents are waiting for into actual supply."

Earlier, Oh expressed regret at being denied the floor at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and released the first "top-tutor mayor" video laying out his proposals and views on government policy. That video surpassed 300,000 views on his YouTube channel "Oh Se-hoon TV," drawing wide public attention.