Oh Se-hoon urges president to hear public's 'desperate' housing pleas at Thursday forum

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon called on President Lee Jae Myung to listen carefully to the public's desperate circumstances ahead of a major real estate policy forum the president is set to attend Thursday.

Oh wrote on his SNS account Wednesday that he had "no intention of criticizing the president's transaction," adding that Lee had "personally demonstrated just how abnormal current real estate regulations have made the market."

It recently emerged that President Lee and his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, had sold an apartment they jointly owned in Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, for 2.9 billion won ($1.97 million). The buyers, however, registered a 1.78 billion won collateral mortgage in the couple's name. The arrangement appears to reflect the Lees deferring receipt of the remaining balance on behalf of buyers who lacked the cash. The buyers are understood to have indicated they would settle the balance by around October.

"Even the president had to think of such a workaround just to sell a single home — what clearer proof of regulatory failure could there be?" Oh said. "The flexibility the president needed is needed far more desperately by ordinary citizens."

He then said there was "one difference between the president and the public: the president had options, while homeless end-users tied to a 200 million won loan cap have none."

Oh said the president's plan to hold a direct debate with the public on real estate policy Thursday was "a welcome development," and urged Lee to take note of the most common concern citizens had raised ahead of the forum. "It is a desperate plea to ease the uniform loan regulations that are strangling them," he said.

He added that if Lee remembered "the frustration you must have felt during this transaction, you will be able to answer that question at Thursday's forum."