A Paradigm Shift in Real Estate Policy: From Home Price Stability to Housing Stability

Korea’s real estate policy has repeatedly tightened or loosened ownership, transaction, tax, and financial regulations in response to rising housing prices and overheating markets. However, since housing is both an asset and a good that provides essential housing services to the public, stabilizing sale prices does not necessarily mean achieving housing stability. If regulations intended to suppress housing prices constrain home transactions and rental supply while increasing tenants’ housing cost burdens, they may conflict with the original purpose of the policy. Accordingly, this study compares the evolution and performance of real estate policies under successive administrations from 2013 to 2026, analyzes the spillover effects of housing regulations on the jeonse and monthly rent market, and proposes directions for policy change.

The Park Geun-hye administration pursued the normalization of housing transactions and the revitalization of private rentals. The Moon Jae-in administration strengthened taxation on multi-homeowners as well as financial and transaction regulations, while at the same time expanding tenant protections. The Yoon Suk Yeol administration pursued tax burden relief, the lifting of regulated areas, and supply activation, while the Lee Jae-myung administration is simultaneously re-strengthening financial and transaction regulations and pursuing rapid supply measures and rental market stabilization policies. Although the policy stance of successive administrations has changed in this way, comprehensive performance evaluations of tenants’ housing cost burdens and the supply of housing services have been relatively lacking compared with evaluations focused on stabilizing sale prices and managing speculative demand.

Statistics related to housing prices and housing costs also show the need to reconsider policy goals. From 2013 to 2025, the nationwide composite housing sale price index rose by about 16.7%, but over the same period the general consumer price level rose by about 25.4%, suggesting that, after adjusting for inflation, nationwide housing prices actually fell by about 6.9%. By contrast, in September 2026, Seoul’s jeonse price index and integrated monthly rent price index rose by 8.29% and 8.19%, respectively, from the same month of the previous year. The fact that the nationwide average home price, regional jeonse and monthly rent prices, and general consumer prices move differently shows that it is difficult to assess the performance of housing policy based on nominal sale prices alone (Korea Real Estate Board, 2026; National Data Agency, 2026).

The channels through which housing regulations affect the rental market are complex. Loan regulations may delay purchases by genuine demand-side buyers without homes, thereby keeping rental demand in the market. Higher capital gains taxes and transaction regulations may delay housing disposals and reduce transaction liquidity. Increases in holding and financing costs may be passed on in part to rents, while owner-occupancy requirements and frequent institutional changes may constrain the circulation of rental housing and residential mobility. However, because these effects vary depending on regional supply-demand conditions, supply elasticity, and shifts between owner-occupation and renting, the causal relationship between regulations and rising jeonse and monthly rents requires further empirical verification.

Therefore, real estate policy needs to be redesigned away from the short-term suppression of housing sale prices and toward easing households’ real housing cost burdens, stabilizing housing-related prices, and improving housing standards. To this end, tax, financial, and transaction regulations that unnecessarily constrain housing transactions and rental supply should be reexamined, while meaningful expansion of housing supply in demand-concentrated areas and stronger tenant protection should proceed in parallel. Furthermore, a policy performance evaluation framework should be established that comprehensively reflects not only sale prices but also the consumer price index for jeonse and monthly rent, new and renewed rental contract prices, the rent-to-income ratio (RIR), rental housing supply, and residential mobility.

Ultimately, the final goal of real estate policy is not simply to bring down home prices themselves, but to enable the public to maintain stable housing at affordable cost. Price stability is a means to housing stability, and the success or failure of policy should be assessed not only by fluctuations in housing prices but by whether the housing costs actually borne by the public and their housing standards have improved.

Key Policy Recommendations

1. Shift policy goals: reorganize the performance evaluation system away from suppressing housing sale prices and toward stabilizing jeonse and monthly rent burdens and housing-related prices

2. Rationalize tax and transaction regulations: minimize transaction lock-in and constraints on rental housing supply caused by heavier capital gains taxes on multi-homeowners, owner-occupancy requirements, and similar measures

3. Housing supply and tenant protection: expand meaningful supply in urban centers where demand is concentrated, revitalize private long-term rentals, and ensure the safety of tenants’ contracts and security deposits

4. Ease financial regulations centered on genuine demand: while maintaining sound household debt management, relax loan regulations to ease constraints on home purchases and residential mobility for genuine demand-side buyers who are non-homeowners or one-homeowners

5. Institutionalize real estate policy impact assessments (introduce a real estate regulatory impact assessment system and strengthen feedback): conduct regular empirical evaluations before and after regulation implementation on jeonse and monthly rent prices, rental housing stock, housing cost burdens, and mobility, and feed the results back into policy

Ⅰ. Introduction

Ⅱ. Evolution of Real Estate Policy Under Successive Administrations (2013–2026)

1. Scope of analysis and common comparison criteria

2. Park Geun-hye administration (2013.2–2017.3)

3. Moon Jae-in administration (2017.5–2022.5)

4. Yoon Suk Yeol administration (2022.5–2025.4)

5. Lee Jae-myung administration (2025.6–2026.10)

Ⅲ. Comparison and Performance Evaluation of Real Estate Policy

1. Comparative changes in ownership, transaction, and holding tax systems

2. Comparative evaluation of policy performance and side effects

3. Changes in housing cost burdens and housing standards

4. Structural implications identified through policy changes

5. Key evaluation issues in recent major policies (2025–2026)

Ⅳ. Changes in Housing Prices and the Jeonse/Monthly Rent Market and the Pass-Through of Rental Costs

1. Nominal increases in housing prices and inflation adjustment: what actually rose?

2. Trends in jeonse and monthly rent prices, housing costs, and housing supply

3. Cost pass-through channels from housing regulations to the rental market

Ⅴ. Shifting Real Estate Policy Toward Housing Cost Stability

1. Shifts in tax, financial, and supply policy

2. Introduction of performance indicators for stable housing cost management and a real estate regulatory impact assessment framework

References

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Original title: 부동산 정책의 패러다임 전환: 집값 안정에서 주거 안정으로

Author: Gwang yong Go

Date: 2026-11-09

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=report&pn=1&idx=29720