Lee: "I Never Said Seoul Housing Prices Were Plunging... 'Only Gangnam Was Right' Is Fake News"

Calls out distortion of remark that "actual transaction prices in major areas are falling"... objects to use of direct quotation
"I was referring to Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa... I never said prices across Seoul were plunging"

President Lee Jaemyung pushed back against a media report that quoted him as saying “Only Gangnam was right” about his remarks on falling home prices in Seoul, calling the report fake news on Nov. 4. He said he had only noted that actual transaction prices in major areas of Seoul were falling sharply, and had never said that home prices across the entire city were plunging. He took particular issue with the report placing words he had not actually said in quotation marks and presenting them as a direct quote.

President Lee Jaemyung speaks at a Cabinet meeting held at the Blue House on Nov. 3, 2026. Yonhap News.

That day, President Lee shared on his X account (formerly Twitter) an article titled “‘Concern over plunge in home prices’: President says only Gangnam was right... Seoul prices rise for 90 consecutive weeks,” and wrote, “The report that the President said ‘home prices are plunging’ and that only Gangnam was right is fake news.”

President Lee pointed out, “When talking about home prices in Seoul, I said, ‘Actual transaction prices in major areas are also falling to a surprising degree.’ That is not the same as saying they are ‘plunging.’” He added, “Even if the meaning were the same, it should not be put in quotation marks and presented as a direct quote.”

He also clarified the scope of his remarks. President Lee wrote, “‘Only Gangnam was right’ implies that what I said about other areas was wrong, but it is clear that I was referring only to Seoul’s major areas, namely Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa.”

He continued, “I never said that ‘home prices across all of Seoul are plunging,’ so saying that only Gangnam was right is also fake news,” adding, “You can find it in the article itself, so please judge for yourself.”

He also cited indicators from the real estate market to support his remarks. President Lee urged people to “look carefully at the objective data, including a sharp increase in properties listed for sale across Seoul, a steep drop in transactions, a prolonged and substantial fall in home prices in major areas of Seoul, including Gangnam, and increases in delinquency rates and the number of properties put up for auction.”

The controversy stemmed from President Lee’s remarks at a Cabinet meeting the previous day. At the meeting he chaired at the Blue House on Nov. 3, he said, “The number of properties listed for sale in Seoul is rising rapidly, and transaction volumes are also falling sharply,” adding, “Actual transaction prices in major areas are also falling to a surprising degree, although there are areas where that is not the case.”

He went on to say, “There are various views about the outlook for housing prices in the Seoul metropolitan area,” and stressed, “I think it is important to make sure the public can access this accurate data directly.”

However, in a report published on Nov. 4, the media outlet analyzed that home prices were falling in Seoul’s three Gangnam districts, while prices in other areas continued to rise. Citing Korea Real Estate Board data for the final week of October, it reported that apartment prices in Seoul rose 0.09% from the previous week, marking 90 consecutive weeks of increases, and that home prices also rose in the 22 districts outside the three Gangnam districts.

Earlier, on Nov. 3, President Lee posted again on X, saying that the government was already considering measures such as purchasing large numbers of homes for public rental housing if prices fell sharply. “Escaping the ruinous republic of real estate speculation is more important than the fate of any administration,” President Lee said, emphasizing his commitment to stabilizing the real estate market.

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