He also criticized attacks over a bill introduced in the National Assembly to limit the special deduction for long-term holding, saying it is unrelated to the government but is being “manipulated” to look like a presidential proposal.
Lee, on a state visit to Vietnam, posted on X, formerly Twitter, alongside an article saying markets were confused by controversy over “abolishing” the long-term holding deduction. His post was titled, “Where there is income, there are taxes. People pay earned income tax on wages, so it is natural to pay capital gains tax on housing sales income.”
Lee said he agrees there is a need for capital gains tax relief tied to how long a person actually lives in a home. But he said it is wrong to cut taxes for those who do not live there and bought it as an investment simply because they held it for a long time.
“Who are the people who spread ‘buy one prime home’ speculation centered on Seoul’s Gangnam, driving a chain reaction of surging home prices — and who are the people shielding them?” Lee wrote. “Is it a ‘tax bomb’ to normalize the abnormal practice of cutting taxes because someone speculated for a long time on a home they don’t live in?”
He also criticized opposition to scaling back long-term capital gains tax benefits, saying, “It seemed quiet for a while, but it looks like forces that encourage real estate speculation are starting to move again.”
Lee said a bill proposed by some opposition lawmakers to limit the long-term holding deduction is being portrayed as his initiative. “To properly protect housing for single-home owners, it would be right to reduce tax relief for nonresidency holding periods and increase relief for residency holding periods by that amount,” he wrote.
Calling “normalizing the abnormal” and escaping real estate speculation “this country’s final survival strategy,” Lee added, “Home prices must stabilize so people can build a home, get married, and have and raise children.” He asked readers to share their views in comments.
Separately, Lee’s approval rating, which had dipped slightly, rebounded in a week to a new high, the report said, citing the KOSPI index hovering around 6,500 and first-quarter economic growth of 1.7%.
Gallup Korea said April 24 that in a survey of 1,001 voters nationwide aged 18 and older conducted April 21-23, Lee’s approval rating rose 1 percentage point from the previous week to 67%.
The poll was conducted through computer-assisted telephone interviews. At a 95% confidence level, the margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. More details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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