President Lee Jae-myung’s “Second Home” in Gyeyang, Incheon — Where Does It Stand Now?

[Choice Times=Jae-Il Yoo, Political Commentator]

President Lee Jae-myung, stop your real estate policies, which are saturated with false moral consciousness, immediately.

To begin with, aren’t most members of the National Assembly living in their constituencies on jeonse or monthly rent? How many of them actually own a home in their district and live there full-time?

Let us take President Lee Jae-myung as an example. Did you purchase a home in Gyeyang, Incheon and move in? Or did you simply relocate your registered address to Gyeyang due to occupational and political necessity?

Ah, you did respond to this criticism, didn’t you? When you ran for the Gyeyang-eul seat in Incheon in 2022, you announced your intention to sell your Bundang apartment and listed it on the market. You initially set the asking price at the peak level of 2.65 billion won, but the transaction failed, didn’t it? You lowered the price, you say? And then quietly withdrew the listing afterward.

According to your current logic, President Lee, shouldn’t you have sold it even at 2.4 billion—or even 2.3 billion won? Isn’t your government’s message that speculative gaps in housing must be eliminated, that people should not scoff at the government’s resolve, and that even if one takes a loss, one should sell? Shouldn’t you have set the example yourself?

If you intend to live in Gyeyang, you should sell the Bundang apartment and buy in Gyeyang. If you live in the presidential residence, sell the Bundang apartment and live there, and then buy again in Bundang when you return. But that would require paying acquisition and registration taxes each time—so is that why you want to raise holding taxes instead?

What excuse will you make? That you have personal circumstances? That politicians have special circumstances? Then do ordinary citizens have none?

Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung has put her Yongin home on the market. She says her parents live there—so must they now live on jeonse or monthly rent? Wait. If she uses the proceeds from selling the house to pay her parents’ jeonse deposit, wouldn’t that constitute a gift subject to taxation? That would exceed the 50 million won exemption, wouldn’t it? Ah, yes—she could write a loan agreement and charge interest. Then she could provide up to 50 million won over ten years within the limit. Is this what people are now supposed to do?

Doesn’t it occur to you that the law itself may be flawed? That the administrative power you are exercising is misguided? Try assuming that this blade is turned toward yourself. Is this really the right path?

And by the way, Spokesperson Kang sold the Yongin house where her parents live—but she has no intention whatsoever of selling her apartment in Banpo’s Acro River Park. According to the President’s own words, housing prices are supposed to fall and bubbles deflate. If so, Acro River Park is at its peak right now—so why won’t she sell? The conclusion is obvious: a “prime single home.”

Even the presidential spokesperson is choosing a “prime single home.” Then what are ordinary citizens supposed to do? Choose one prime home and live in it. But what kind of rigidity does that create?

If exceptions are not allowed for people who cannot reside in their homes due to occupational conditions, then President Lee, you are not living in your Bundang apartment either. Shouldn’t you sell it? Sell your home while living in the presidential residence and buy again after leaving office. Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? But do you realize this is precisely the logic you are imposing?

In December 2024, Yangji Village Kumho was designated as a pilot district for first-generation new town redevelopment. That is your apartment, is it not? It appears so in your publicly disclosed asset filings. As of 2025, it recorded a new high of 2.75 billion won.

In 2021, you appeared on Yoo Si-min’s YouTube channel and spoke about your home. You said: “I bought it for 360 million won during the IMF crisis, and now it’s close to 2 billion won. I honestly feel a deep sense of guilt. I benefited from this society’s corrupt and unjust structure.” That was your statement.

If you felt guilty when it was worth 2 billion won in 2021, then now that it is worth 2.75 billion won in 2026, why not coolly sell it at that price and donate 750 million won? Is it that you feel moral guilt, but unearned income is still yours to keep?

You once said you were “fighting the market.” Let me correct that for you. You are fighting your own desires. Or, since you called it conscience, you are fighting your own conscience. Or was that talk of conscience merely a performance, while your true feeling is, “Ah, how sweet—keep rising”?

Even if you were openly happy about your home price rising, I would have zero intention of criticizing you. That is how capitalism works.

There is only one way for housing prices not to rise: prolonged economic depression. No inflation, no corporate profits, no growth—people barely surviving month to month, pockets emptied to zero. No development, no investment, no hope. Everything frozen. Only then, after loans are wiped out, do housing prices fall and stagnate. Asset values not rising is a catastrophe under capitalism. Desire disappears. Hope disappears with it.

The story of Lee Jae-myung, a former factory boy from Seongnam, passing the bar exam, buying a Bundang apartment for 360 million won, and seeing it grow to 2.75 billion won is not merely a personal success story—it is also a testament to the nation’s development. His desire deserves respect. It is proof that he worked hard, and that the country advanced through collective effort.

There is no reason to feel guilt over rising home prices. There is no reason for Lee Jae-myung to feel moral remorse for his own ambition and hope. What he deserves criticism for is hypocrisy—false consciousness. He is criticized because his actions and words do not align.

When Yangji Village Kumho was designated as a pilot redevelopment district, did you submit a consent form as a resident, or not? Did you suffer deep moral anguish over your rising asset value, or did you not? According to an Asia Economy report, you submitted it by mail. Will you now say, like Moon Jae-in, “Was it the cat?” Or “Was it my wife?”

When you went to Gyeyang, where apartment prices have fallen 15 percent, what did you say? Didn’t you promise to make Gyeyang like Bundang?

Just live as you always have. Recently, I even praised Lee Jae-myung. I said he was doing better than expected, that he understands reality because he rose from the bottom, and that he is not blindly arrogant like Moon Jae-in. Compared to Moon Jae-in and Cho Kuk, who were full of hypocrisy and stubbornness, Lee seemed more flexible and pragmatic.

But in the end, a leftist is still a leftist. A leftist who wields unattainable moral standards like a weapon, slashing society open and throwing open the gates of hell. Eyes filled with hostility, words growing coarse—threatening that if people do not obey, they will be impaled by tax spears.

You want to show that you are different from Moon Jae-in and Yoon Suk-yeol, don’t you? You want to accomplish what no previous president has—solving the housing problem. Then reflect on your own desires and the desires of others, and respect them.

Do you know how a government defeats the market? The market is a place where desire is acknowledged, coordinated, and traded. A democratic government becomes a mediator of desire. A government that tries to control desire becomes authoritarian. The Sunshine Policy should be applied not to North Korea, but to domestic governance.

If the “Lee Jae-myung Doctrine” is to contribute to stability in Korea’s real estate market, return to who you once were: the boy who wanted to rise, the young father who bought a Bundang apartment for 360 million won and built a family. This kind of brute force will bring misfortune—to the nation and to yourself.

#RealEstateHypocrisy #HousingPolicyDebate #KoreanPolitics