Moon pledges to clean up corruption in housing market

President Moon Jae-in on Monday vowed to root out corruption in the housing market, calling real estate speculation another form of “deep-rooted evil” that has long been prevalent in society.

“Eradicating deep-rooted evil and restoring order in the real estate market will become one of the key goals in the remaining time of the administration,” Moon said in a weekly meeting with his key aides at Cheong Wa Dae.

“We should keep in mind that this is the most important issue concerning people’s livelihood.” 

Moon’s remarks come as the presidential office struggles to calm simmering public anger and contain political fallout over a snowballing insider trading scandal involving dozens of officials at the state-run Korea Land and Housing Corp.

Hit hard by the latest scandal over the past week, Moon's job approval rating tumbled to a nine-week low of 37.7 percent, according to a recent poll by Realmeter. A 40-something rating has been considered a key indicator to gauge the president’s control of state affairs in his final year in office.

Political tensions are also brewing as opposition parties are upping the ante against the president and the ruling liberal bloc ahead of the crucial mayoral elections in Seoul and Busan early next month.

Moon warned rival parties not to politicize the issue, asking them to join hands in implementing concrete countermeasures like a conflict of interest law and a watchdog specialized in monitoring real estate transactions among government officials.

“Even though blame should go first to the government, this is an issue that our politics has failed to address for long. This is also a bipartisan issue that should be addressed together to move forward a transparent and fair society,” he said.

But he ruled out the possibility of cancelling or scaling down the government’s ongoing housing supply projects, including those led by the troubled LH.

“Fighting corruption in the housing market is deeply intertwined with the government’s measures to stabilize the market. There should be no damage to non-homeowners and young people. We will do our best to push ahead with the original supply plans,” he added.

On Feb. 4, the government announced a massive housing project which would provide 830,000 residential units in Seoul and areas nearby for the coming years, citing an urgent need to stabilize the heated market and better protect people’s housing rights.

But according to tentative results of the ongoing investigation, 20 LH officials were found to have purchased land in the Gwangmyeong-Siheung area of Gyeonggi Province by using insider information before the project was officially announced.

In light of the findings, Land Minister Byeon Chang-heum, who was a former president at LH, offered his resignation on Friday. Moon accepted the resignation but said he should complete the initial legislative work for the supply project in the coming weeks.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)