Ex-finance minister blasts Lee government's housing regulations as 'insane'

Choi Kyung-hwan, the former deputy prime minister and finance minister who dramatically loosened real estate lending rules under the Park Geun-hye administration — famously urging Koreans to "borrow money and buy a house" — sharply criticized the Lee Jae Myung government's housing policy Wednesday, calling for an easing of loan regulations to revive transactions in the existing housing market rather than focusing on new supply.

Speaking at a seminar titled "I Should Have Borrowed and Bought a House Back Then," hosted by the National Assembly research group Greater Seoul Residential Innovation Forum, Choi called the current government's regulation-heavy real estate policy "insane regulation, plain and simple." He said the loan curbs the Lee Jae Myung government had introduced — amid a housing crisis in the greater Seoul area and a stagnant market in the regions — were "a policy no one with any understanding of economics could put forward."

"The purpose of housing policy should be to let people live comfortably," Choi said. "But the current government treats curbing real estate speculation as a higher priority than the housing insecurity of the entire population."

He said revitalizing transactions in the existing housing market should be the core of any supply policy, and warned that stacking overlapping regulations — such as the pre-sale price cap and the reconstruction excess-profit recovery scheme — makes reconstruction projects unworkable.

"No government beats the market," Choi said. "Problems can only be solved by returning to the market."

Choi was the architect of the loan-to-value ratio and total debt service ratio relaxations under the Park Geun-hye government, moves that gave rise to the catchphrase "borrow money and buy a house" — a shorthand for his push to encourage Koreans to save up or take out loans to get onto the property ladder.

People Power Party lawmaker Jo Jeong-hun, co-chair of the forum, invoked Choi's old phrase and called it "words that read like a prophecy looking a decade ahead."

"Real estate in the greater Seoul area is a worry for every citizen," Jo said, adding that the forum would develop policy alternatives covering taxation, finance, housing supply and transportation.

Reform Party lawmaker Lee Jun-seok, the other co-chair, criticized President Lee Jae Myung directly. "President Lee must have built his own home and accumulated assets through jeonse and loans himself," Lee said. "It is far too cruel to have enjoyed every rung of that ladder and then throw it away so the next generation cannot use it."