The People Power Party launched a full-scale offensive Tuesday against President Lee Jae Myung over the sale of his apartment in Bundang, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, calling the transaction a "trick to circumvent lending regulations" after it emerged that a mortgage lien had been registered in the names of the president and his wife.
According to the property registry, the buyer assumed an existing jeonse deposit of 1.13 billion won ($762,000), while Lee and his wife set a maximum mortgage lien of 1.77 billion won. The PPP said the structure of the deal amounted to an end-run around real estate lending rules.
PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok wrote on Facebook that President Lee had personally offered a solution as ordinary citizens struggled under tightened real estate lending restrictions. "The answer is a seller-financed mortgage — a 'Together Mortgage,'" Jang wrote.
He went on to mock the arrangement, saying people should stop worrying about being denied loans or about land transaction permit requirements and simply write down "Together Mortgage" instead. "He makes the regulations and he makes the loopholes," Jang added, suggesting that since the capital gain exceeded 2 billion won, Lee should consider sharing the "excess profit" with the public.
Floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik also weighed in at a floor strategy meeting, saying the president had "tightly blocked ordinary citizens from getting loans to buy homes, while selling his own home by effectively circumventing lending rules through a private-financing arrangement," and calling the transaction "an event that shows just how abnormally the Lee Jae Myung administration's real estate policy is distorting the market." Jeong urged the government to ease what he called abnormal lending restrictions, shift real estate policy toward private-sector supply, and dismiss Kim Yong-beom, the presidential office's policy chief.
Opposition figures also raised questions about the mechanics of the deal itself and called on the presidential office to explain.
Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok wrote on Facebook that while ordinary people were effectively shut out of bank lending, "someone bought a home through an irregular private-financing arrangement." He questioned why the seller sought a buyer with such complicated conditions when a slightly lower asking price would have attracted buyers with sufficient funds, and asked whether the buyer was a personal acquaintance.
PPP chief floor spokesperson Kim Tae-gyu issued a statement saying, "Don't cry because your bank loan fell through — the president will lend to you directly," and argued that the buyer had covered virtually the entire purchase price through the assumed jeonse deposit of 1.13 billion won combined with the 1.77 billion won mortgage lien set by the presidential couple.
Kim added that the buyer, a multi-home owner who already held a unit in the same complex, would have faced difficulty obtaining a bank loan under government regulations. "Ultimately, the president criticized jeonse as private financing, yet sold his own home using a jeonse deposit and a mortgage lien," Kim said. Kim urged Lee to explain to the public whether the transaction constituted a genuine sale, given that the president still holds the proceeds in the form of a bond.
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