PPP slams government housing policy, says youth are being told to give up on homeownership

The People Power Party on Wednesday sharply criticized the government's real estate tax reform plan and housing policy, saying they are making it harder for young Koreans to own a home. The party also put forward alternatives, calling for quality housing supply and financial and tax support rather than tighter regulation.

The PPP held a forum at the National Assembly that morning titled "Can Young Koreans Own a Home? Youth Ask, Experts Answer." The event was organized by the party's policy committee and external affairs committee, and hosted by lawmakers Kim Jang-gyeom and Shin Dong-uk.

PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok said at the forum that South Korea had become a country where the basic premise — that hard work leads to achieving one's dreams — no longer holds. "We must reclaim the 'stolen sovereignty' of young people," Jang said. "We will build a Korea where young people can work at the jobs they want, save up penny by penny, and own their own home."

Lawmaker Kim said apartment prices in Greater Seoul had risen beyond what an ordinary salaried worker could afford. "Far from owning a home, young people are struggling under the weight of jeonse loan interest and monthly rent, worrying about having a roof over their heads at all," he said. Lawmaker Shin said converting old buses into rooms or fitting bathtubs into cramped study-hall lodgings would not build a housing ladder for young people. "We need to increase the supply of quality housing and lower financial barriers in line with people's income and assets," he said.

Young people who attended the forum said loan and tax regulations were in fact raising the barriers to entering the housing market.

Kim Ki-seon, a member of the PPP's Youth Sovereignty Forum, said the current environment allows only those with large amounts of cash to participate in the market. "When taxes and costs rise, they get passed on to rent, and when loans are blocked, transactions freeze up — which also affects existing tenants trying to recover their deposits," he said.

He added that policymakers needed to look at the real lives of young people. "A young person who starts out in a 13-square-meter room should be able to move up to 33 square meters and beyond, growing their life as they go," he said.

Park Jun-hwan, also a member of the forum, said what young people feel on the ground is not the stated rationale of any policy regime but the housing costs they have to cover every month. He called for practical financial and tax support for first-time homebuyers.

Experts at the forum proposed easing the tax burden and shifting housing supply policy. Oh Moon-sung, chairman of the Korea Tax Policy Association, said single-home ownership should not in principle be treated as speculation. "Imposing a punitive level of taxation on people who own just one home simply because it is high-priced is something that should be approached with great caution," he said.

Jung Seok-jun, an adjunct professor in the real estate department at Sogang University, proposed a scheme he called a "redevelopment-linked apartment rental-to-ownership" model. Under the plan, the public sector would purchase homes within a redevelopment zone in advance, lease them to young people, and then give tenants the option to convert to ownership as the project progresses.

"The path from renting to accumulating assets over time and eventually owning a home is still very limited," Jung said. "This system would give young people the option to choose whether to convert to ownership at each stage of the redevelopment process."