Lee highlights role of politics to stabilize housing prices

▲ President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech during a groundbreaking ceremony for a railway project in the southeastern city of Geoje, about 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Feb. 6, 2026. (Yonhap)

Lee-housing prices

Lee highlights role of politics to stabilize housing prices

By Yi Wonju

SEOUL, Feb. 6 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung on Friday stressed the role of politics in stabilizing soaring housing prices in the Seoul metropolitan area despite public resistance over his policies.

Lee made the remarks during a town hall meeting in the southeastern city of Changwon, noting the concentration of resources and population in the capital region as one of the root causes of the housing issue.

"Politics must solve this problem," Lee said. "It is the role of politics to allocate society's resources."

"I heard that an apartment unit in Seoul is enough to buy an entire apartment building in another region," he added, questioning the excessively high housing prices.

The government is set to end an exemption from heavy capital gains tax for multiple home owners in May as part of efforts to curb rising housing prices.

Earlier in the day, Lee attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a railway project in the southeastern city of Geoje, about 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul, where he warned that the country's capital-concentrated growth strategy has reached its limits.

"Today will be remembered as a historic day, marked by a departure from growth centered on the greater Seoul area, which has reached its limits, and the opening of a new era of region-led growth," he said.

The railway, connecting Geoje to the southeastern city of Gimcheon, is scheduled to open in 2030, and is expected to reduce travel time between Geoje and Seoul to less than three hours.

At the event, Lee also criticized the excessive concentration of population and resources in the Seoul capital region, which has deepened regional imbalance across the country.

"Sustained development becomes impossible when everything is concentrated in Seoul and housing prices have surged to unlivable levels, while the provincial areas face the risk of extinction as people move away," he said.

"It is time we adopt balanced growth and balanced development as South Korea's survival strategy," he added.

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