[2026 Audit] "If the Land Ministry is the control tower, why is it just running errands for financial authorities?" ... Yoo Euidong rebukes land minister

"Budget and supply targets do not match"

At a comprehensive audit by the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee on October 23, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport was criticized for relinquishing control of real estate policy to financial and tax authorities and merely running errands for them.

During the audit that day, Yoo Euidong, chair of the committee, asked Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Hong Jiseon, “Where is the control tower for real estate policy? Is it the Blue House or the Financial Services Commission?” When Hong replied, “The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport oversees the policy and consults with the financial and tax authorities,” Yoo pointed out, “From the public’s perspective, it seems the control tower is the tax or financial authorities.”

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Hong Jiseon answers lawmakers' questions during a comprehensive parliamentary audit of the ministry and other agencies at the National Assembly on the 23rd. Photo by Yun Dongju.

Yoo criticized the ministry, saying, “Rather than overseeing policy, it seems to be running errands for other ministries,” and asked, “Why can’t the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport take the lead in determining how much lending capacity should be provided based on the number of homes being supplied, and what tax measures should be taken?”

He added, “Offering 20- or 30-year mortgages is a basic real estate policy. How does it make sense to separate real estate from finance?” He urged the minister to speak out more forcefully.

Yoo also said the government’s public rental housing supply targets were nothing more than “a numbers game,” completely disconnected from the budget and the financial condition of Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH).

When Hong said the government would supply an unlimited number of public-purchase rental homes to stabilize the jeonse and monthly rental markets and provide 920,000 publicly supported rental homes in the Seoul metropolitan area over five years, Yoo pressed him: “LH has more than 200 trillion won in debt, and reportedly loses as much as 150 million won each time it builds a rental home because construction costs are rising. Are the volume LH can handle and the budget aligned?”

Officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport replied that next year’s budget for public housing supply, including funds from the Housing and Urban Fund, had been set at approximately 33 trillion won. However, they did not provide specific figures on how many homes could actually be built with 33 trillion won.

“The budget and the target number of homes do not match,” Yoo said. “They keep citing figures such as 1.19 million or 1.5 million homes, but the rental housing supply disappearing from Seoul because of the owner-occupancy requirement policy is likely to do so much faster and on a much larger scale than the supply of public rental housing. They have not even gathered statistics on this.”

Yoo Eui-dong, chair of the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee and a People Power Party lawmaker. Photo by Kim Hyunmin.

Yoo also criticized the announcement to split up LH. “They announced the split before even finalizing how to divide the assets, debt and staff between the revenue-generating development function and the rental housing and welfare function, which incurs costs,” he said. “Employees are anxious, and private-sector businesses preparing projects are confused, so it feels like nothing is ready.”

Hong replied, “I fully understand the points you have raised, Chair, and will continue to present our views through joint consultation meetings.”

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