Lee backs proposal to cap capital gains tax exemption for homeowners to once in a lifetime

President Lee Jae-myung expressed support Thursday for a proposal to limit the capital gains tax exemption for single-home owners to once in a lifetime, calling it "a very reasonable point."

Lee presided over the National Forum on Real Estate Policy at the KBS building in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. Held under the slogan "Designing Korea's Real Estate Policy Blueprint Together with the People," the forum gathered public input on housing policy.

Lee Gwang-su, head of the YouTube channel "Gwangsune Bokdeokbang," a real estate advice channel, proposed limiting the capital gains tax exemption for single-household homeowners to once per lifetime. "Some people keep moving and receiving the tax exemption repeatedly," he said. "From the moment someone buys their first home, they should think carefully about whether they plan to live there long-term and make a rational choice."

The argument targets homeowners who buy high-value properties, fulfill the two-year residency requirement to qualify for the capital gains tax exemption, sell the home to pocket the profit, then repeat the process through frequent moves and transactions to build up assets.

Lee called the idea "a fresh way of thinking" and "a very reasonable point."

He added that "giving unlimited opportunities for tax exemptions seems somewhat problematic," and said the government could consider "limiting the number of times, offering a larger exemption the first time and reducing it the second time, or capping the total amount."

Lee said it was "a reasonable point to ask whether people who repeatedly buy and sell high-priced homes should receive the same exemption each time," leaving open the possibility that the government could review the issue in a future overhaul of real estate tax policy.

Lee Gwang-su also called for "loan restructuring" to subject existing borrowers to the same regulations as new household loan applicants. On reconstruction and redevelopment, he proposed easing restrictions while introducing an overall volume cap.

"If you ease everything at once, the number of demolished homes surges and becomes a source of market instability," Lee Gwang-su said. "So you cap it at, say, 20,000 units a year, but let projects that offer more public pre-sale units, raise the floor-area ratio higher, or lower pre-sale prices move to the front of the line for reconstruction and redevelopment."

He warned that lifting all restrictions at once — as the current Seoul city administration has done — would concentrate reconstruction in Gangnam, flooding the market with expensive apartments. "If 300,000 homes suddenly disappear all at once, housing prices will skyrocket," he said.

President Lee said policymakers face a difficult task but must work with precision. "It is important for policy authorities to apply a targeted approach with no loopholes, and to ensure there are no gaps that allow people to profit unfairly," he said. "To do that, they will need to put in a lot of work."