Democratic Party Caucus Clashes Over Real-Estate Tax Reform, Fears Tenant Support Slipping

"Everyone, there's chaos at the Democratic caucus. They're now asking how we're going to handle the elections, and what's going to happen to our seats. Why? Because of this real-estate tax reform plan." The speaker argued that concern over the general election and lawmakers' seats is driving the dispute, with the tax reform plan as the direct cause.

"What they're not talking about is the real essence. Out of everything related to real estate, they've left out the essence and are only talking about their own election problems. This is something the public needs to be told quickly." The speaker stressed that the party is hiding the essence of the real-estate problem and weighing only its electoral advantage.

"This lecture may become the last regular lecture. I'll tell you exactly how it is. If you all listen to it a lot this time, we can continue this, because I spend a lot of money producing these. There are also staff and incentive issues." The speaker implied that production costs are high, staff incentives are an issue, and that without strong participation from students, continuing operations will be hard.

The speaker expressed pride in the lectures, highlighting past students' results and the accuracy of market forecasts. "And it's a good lecture. It's one I'm proud of. The people who have taken it up to now, I'd almost ask you to leave comments. Results have come out for those who joined from the 23rd session onward, and the market forecasts were accurate too. I'd say there's probably no one else in Korea who makes lectures this way." The speaker noted that students from the 23rd session onward achieved good results and that market predictions also held up, calling the lecture unique in Korea.

"Revenue has dropped. Right now it's a time when I have to think about whether we can keep operating at all. Every time I deliver content like this, I feel sorry, and even if some people dislike it, all I can say is that I'm sorry, because my situation doesn't allow me to weigh that." While expressing regret, the speaker admitted that, given the current circumstances, they have no choice but to accept criticism.

"A party's approval doesn't plummet just because property prices go up. Think back to the Moon Jae-in era. For five years prices surged, and despite nearly 30 regulations, approval didn't crash. It declined gradually." Citing the Moon administration, when prices soared over five years and nearly 30 regulations were introduced, the speaker explained that approval fell slowly rather than collapsing.

The speaker argued that the Democratic Party's approval begins to fall when the rental market problem becomes serious. "If you look at approval, for the Democrats, approval starts to drop when the jeonse and monthly rent problem becomes serious, and from then on they begin to seriously wreck real estate. I've said before that this is the Democrats' chronic disease." The speaker described this as the party's chronic problem: instability in the jeonse and monthly-rent market drives approval down, and afterward it begins policies that damage the property market.

"So for sale prices, you can't cleanly conclude how the party's approval goes based on whether prices rise or fall." In other words, the speaker held that changes in approval cannot be pinned on rising or falling sale prices alone.

"Tenants, think about it. From a tenant's point of view, if jeonse and sale prices, or jeonse and monthly rents, go up, what happens? There's not a single person who'd be happy about that." The speaker explained that higher jeonse and monthly rents directly increase housing cost burdens, so no one benefits.

The speaker pointed out that restricting jeonse loans increases tenants' monthly-rent burden. "If you don't even provide jeonse loans, the monthly-rent burden goes up. Even moving into a jeonse unit, the interest will be a burden. Then tenants will definitely leave." The speaker emphasized that if jeonse loans become harder to get, monthly-rent costs rise, and even jeonse carries interest costs, so tenants end up leaving the market.

The speaker criticized the Democratic Party's tenant policy for being contradictory due to its regulation of multi-home owners. "The Democratic Party has to understand tenants' feelings well. To understand tenants, they'd have to look after multi-home owners, speculators, and rental business operators. But what's happening is they're doubly dealing: they say they're protecting tenants and helping them buy homes, while they're actually turning multi-home owners into targets." The speaker argued that under the pretext of protecting tenants, the party is regulating multi-home owners, which reduces rental supply and drives up jeonse and monthly rents.

The speaker recalled predicting that the Democratic Party's real-estate policy would fail, and said the present situation is playing out as expected. "I said the Democrats' real-estate policy was bound to fail. The picture doesn't add up at all, so they'd use the market they're going to wreck as a way to collect taxes and then discard it. On rising property prices, I said they'd blame homeowners, divide people, carry out witch hunts, and turn it into a tax-collection tool, and that's exactly what's happening. But now that approval is falling, and especially since they're blaming the tax changes, they're fearing they may not keep their seats, which is why they're in an uproar." The speaker explained that the party would wreck the market with contradictory policies and then discard it as a tax-collection tool, and that the caucus chaos stems from falling approval and blame over the tax reform.

"The Democrats have no will and no ability, and they're not going to change course. What I need to tell you is that tenants are now on alert. The fact that the Democrats brought up real estate at all shows that tenant support is slipping away." The speaker argued that the party raising real estate at all is proof that tenant support is falling, and that tenants are now in an emergency.

The speaker explained that tenants whose leases are expiring are struggling to find new jeonse units. "For tenants whose leases are expiring and who have to find a new jeonse unit, it feels like hell is spreading more and more. Because the impact on approval is coming in, the Democrats are now having a sudden fit." The speaker analyzed that this practical hardship is leading to tenant defection, and that the party is reacting in a hurry.

"Why do the Democrats raise taxes? To punish the rich. What's the classic example? When Roh Moo-hyun was in office, they created the comprehensive real estate tax. The line is: real estate taxes must go up, we'll go after the rich, and then we'll give the money they take back to the public, build public rental housing, and help tenants. That's their policy. But now that they've raised taxes, they're suddenly throwing a fit. That's not it. You have to see through to the essence. Their approval is starting to wobble, and tenants have begun to defect." Citing the introduction of the comprehensive real estate tax under the Roh administration, the speaker argued that the original stated aim, taxing the rich to fund public housing and support for tenants, has been overtaken by the current chaos caused by approval falling as tenants defect.

"It's a very simple principle. Is it new supply, or is it multi-home owners? For there to be lots of jeonse and monthly-rent supply, the environment has to allow it, and then rent prices will come down. But they're not even creating that environment. They've completely destroyed it. Fixing this will take two or three years. Even with strong will, it would take two or three years, and they don't even have the will to fix it." The speaker argued that lowering rents requires more new supply or expanded supply from multi-home owners, that the party has instead destroyed that environment, and that repairing it would take two to three years.

"Their goal is to make the people poor, pen them in, make them like livestock, and then keep them as permanent supporters. That's why their goal is socialism and communism." The speaker criticized this goal as resembling socialism and communism.

The speaker analyzed that the Democratic Party is blaming the tax reform plan as its approval in the property market starts to fall. "When people's approval started to seem to shift in the property market, they looked around for someone to blame, and then said the tax reform plan was wrong, that people blame us because of it, and that because of it, our seats could be lost in the general election. That's what they're saying." The speaker explained that the tax reform plan is being resented out of fear that lawmakers could lose their seats in the general election.

The speaker criticized legacy media for not only hiding information the public should know but actually lying. "The public broadcasters and legacy media, which are obligated to inform the public, aren't just hiding this. They're lying." The speaker pointed out that the media, which has a duty to deliver accurate information to the public, is failing to fulfill that role.