Real estate policies targeting multi-property owners will only worsen the rental housing crisis and destabilize housing conditions for young people, experts warned.
Public-centered supply measures could also delay approximately 280,000 units of reconstruction and redevelopment projects in Seoul, according to analysis presented at a forum.
Lee Chang-moo, professor of urban engineering at Hanyang University, criticized the government's ignorance of multi-property owners' role in urban areas at the "31st Anniversary Forum of Yeouido Institute" held at the National Assembly Members' Hall in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 4th.
"In any city, urban centers have high tenant ratios because they must accommodate many busy young and middle-aged households," Lee said. "Private rental housing providers who fulfill this role, both domestically and abroad, are precisely the multi-property owners the government criticizes."
Lee predicted that regulations on multi-property owners would boomerang against working-class citizens and young adults.
"President Lee Jae-myung's view that it's a zero-sum game—one rental unit decreases but one rental household also decreases—fails to understand the arterial sclerosis occurring in the housing market from a flow perspective," he said. "Adding blocked rental housing flow to an already sclerotic housing market will drive up rents sharply and worsen housing instability for working-class citizens and young adults."
Shim Kyo-eon, professor of real estate studies at Konkuk University, warned that public-centered supply policies could disrupt 282,000 units in Seoul.
"Triple regulations including expanded land transaction permit zones in the October 15 measures could delay approximately 84,000 units across 71 reconstruction projects and 198,000 units across 215 redevelopment projects in Seoul," Shim said.