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President Lee Jae-myung speaks at the National Fiscal Strategy Meeting held at the presidential office on the 13th of last month. / Yonhap

On the day President Lee Jae-myung returned from his U.S. and South America trip on the 3rd, he presided over a 7.5-hour meeting reviewing the real estate and stock markets and ordered the preparation of additional measures to expand housing supply. As the lengthy meeting was held immediately after his return, it appears to reflect a sense of urgency over instability in the real estate market and volatility in the stock market.

According to the presidential office on the 4th, Chief Presidential Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a written briefing the previous night that President Lee, immediately after arriving back at 11:30 a.m. that day, went to the presidential office and presided over a "recent real estate and stock market review meeting" from 3 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

At the meeting, President Lee was briefed on market conditions by ministers and commission heads from relevant government agencies. He also continued asking detailed questions of working-level bureau and division directors, sharing his sense of the problem and instructing them to actively work out possible solutions.

In particular, President Lee stressed the importance of expanding and speeding up housing supply, saying, "The prolonged slump in housing supply since 2022 has created a supply cliff."

President Lee also instructed officials to secure available supply volume so that as many homes as possible could be supplied as quickly as possible. He asked them to review every available tool — administrative measures, financial and fiscal support, deregulation — and come up with ways to move up the supply timeline.

He asked Prime Minister Han Sung-sook and the ministers of relevant agencies to conduct a full review of existing supply measures, and also instructed them to closely examine the public's real-world needs from multiple angles and carefully carry out follow-up measures.

Wrapping up the 7.5-hour meeting, President Lee said, "Even if it's difficult, arrange additional reports and a follow-up review meeting on finance and housing supply within two to three days."

                                                                                                        Park Young-hoon