The People Power Party (PPP) on Sunday unveiled "half-price jeonse (a Korean lease system requiring a large lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent) in the Seoul metropolitan area" as its top pledge for the June 3 local elections. The move is seen as a strategy to target public sentiment by zeroing in on housing policy, widely regarded as a weak spot of the Lee Jae-myung administration.
PPP Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk held a press conference titled "Freedom to Own Your Home" at a large newly built apartment complex in Mapo-gu, Seoul, to announce the party's property pledges. "A home is the fundamental foundation that guarantees a stable life for citizens, yet the Lee Jae-myung administration is stripping people of their precious homes," Jang said. "It is dropping tax bombs on homeowners and rent hike bombs on tenants without homes."
"There are bitter memories of housing prices skyrocketing every time a Democratic Party administration took power," he added. "We cannot stand by while the Lee Jae-myung administration follows the same path and turns Korea into a real estate hell."
The PPP put forward "half-price jeonse in Seoul and the metropolitan area" as its No. 1 pledge. The plan calls for supplying long-term jeonse housing at 50% of surrounding market prices to ease the interest burden on homeless working-class tenants in Seoul, with expansion across the wider Seoul metropolitan area as soon as possible. "This can be supplied through local government public housing and rental housing adjustment committee deliberations without central government administrative procedures or legislative amendments," Jang said. "If you choose the PPP in the local elections, we will pursue half-price jeonse first."
