Lee Eokwon: "Separation of Real Estate and Finance Is My Personal Belief"... Evades Direct Answer on 'Gaepo-dong Apartment' Question

National Assembly Political Affairs Committee Report on the 29th
"Was it also your conviction when purchasing the Gaepo-dong apartment?"
Avoids directly answering Assemblyman Cho Junghoon's question

Lee Eokwon, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, stated on the 29th, "Separating the real estate market from finance is my personal belief." When asked whether he held this belief even back in 2013, when controversy arose after he purchased an apartment at the Gaepo-dong Jugong Complex 1 in Gangnam-gu, Seoul—just before it was set for reconstruction and before his assignment to Geneva, Switzerland—by using gap investment (buying with a jeonse tenant in place), he avoided giving a direct answer.

Eokwon Lee, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, is reporting on work at the full meeting of the Political Affairs Committee held at the National Assembly on July 29, 2026. Photo by Hyunmin Kim

At the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee business report that day, Chairman Lee responded this way to a question from Assemblyman Cho Junghoon of the People Power Party, who asked about his convictions concerning the separation of the real estate market and finance.

When asked, "Is the separation of the real estate market and finance just a personal belief of the Financial Services Commission Chairman?" he answered, "Yes, that’s correct."

To the question "As the head of the Financial Services Commission, you can’t stop people using cash from buying homes, can you?" from Assemblyman Cho, Lee replied, "Yes, that’s correct."

However, he refrained from answering the question, "Isn’t the real problem blocking market entry for people who want to buy a house through borrowing? When did separating the real estate and finance markets become your belief—was it since 2013?"

Before he was dispatched to Geneva, Switzerland in 2013, Chairman Lee purchased an apartment at Gaepo-dong Jugong Complex 1 (presently DH Firstier I-Park) in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, for 850 million won. The current market value of this apartment is reported to be around 4 billion won.

Assemblyman Cho pointed out, "Back in 2013, you purchased Gaepo-dong Jugong Complex for 850 million won, using a jeonse lease as a gap investment and taking out a 350 million won mortgage loan. If the current loan-to-value (LTV) ratio were applied, such a loan would not be possible today. At the time, you were 46, making you ineligible for youth preferential policies."

He continued, "Back then, was the separation of the real estate and finance markets not your personal belief? Today, buying in Gaepo-dong for 850 million won is out of the question. If one were to buy a home for 1.2 billion won and take out a 300–400 million won loan, would that make them a bad person?"

Chairman Lee replied, "I have never said such a person is bad."

Chairman Lee was also asked, "Do you think it is justified to prevent young people from leveraging housing loans to make money, as previous generations have done for decades, citing the need to separate real estate and finance?" He responded, "If anything, I believe that my generation must take even greater responsibility now to solve these problems."

He further questioned, "Is it right to keep creating a structure where eased loan regulations stimulate the real estate market and, as a result, the market becomes unstable and young people are pushed further away from homeownership? Is it really appropriate for finance to continue flowing excessively into the real estate market, causing such negative side effects for our society?"

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