President Lee: "Housing Prices Are Far Too High... Korea Must Break Free from the Republic of Real Estate Speculation"

Sharing Asian Housing Price Statistics: Korea's Annual Increase at 1.8%

"Real Estate Still Dominates Household Assets... A Key Reason for Stock Market Undervaluation"

On June 3, President Lee Jaemyung stated, "The price of housing and real estate in Korea is already excessively high," emphasizing the need to move away from a real estate-centered asset structure and shift toward an economy focused on startups and capital markets.

Yonhap News

On this day, President Lee shared statistics on the rate of change in housing prices in major Asian countries, published by the global real estate information provider Global Property Guide, on his X (formerly Twitter) account.

These statistics, based on data from national statistical offices and central banks, compare nominal changes in housing prices over the past year in major Asian countries. According to the data, Vietnam had the highest rate of increase in housing prices at 24.3%, followed by Hong Kong at 9.8%, Tokyo, Japan at 8.2%, India at 3.6%, and Singapore at 3.4%. Korea recorded a rate of 1.8%, which was relatively low compared to Malaysia at 1.7%, the Philippines at 1.6%, Thailand at 1.2%, and Indonesia at 0.6%.

President Lee pointed out that, although Korea's recent increase in housing prices is not higher than other major Asian countries, the burden of accumulated real estate prices and the heavy concentration of household assets in real estate remain serious issues. He said, "Although the proportion of real estate in people’s total assets has decreased significantly, it is still far too high."

President Lee also believes this asset structure is linked to the undervaluation of Korea’s capital markets. He stated, "One reason Korea's stock market remains undervalued is because capital is tied up in real estate," and mentioned that funds locked in real estate should flow into productive investment and innovative industries.

President Lee further stressed, "Korea must break free from being a Republic of Real Estate Speculation, achieve a grand transition into a startup nation, and develop into an irreplaceable core country." This reaffirmed the administration’s existing policy direction to curb speculative demand for real estate and foster startups, innovative companies, and the capital market to transform the structure of the economy.

At the same time, he encouraged participation in local elections. President Lee stated, "Participating in voting and choosing competent and loyal public servants is what will create a truly democratic republic of Korea that we can proudly showcase to the world."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.