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President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on the 27th. / Yonhap News Agency

President Lee Jae Myung on Nov. 4 dismissed as "fake news" media reports that characterized his remarks on Seoul's housing prices as saying that "housing prices are crashing" and claimed that he was "right only about Gangnam." Lee clarified that he had referred to declines in actual transaction prices in major areas such as Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa, rather than saying housing prices were falling across all of Seoul.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) that day, Lee wrote, "When discussing housing prices in Seoul, saying that 'actual transaction prices in major areas are also falling at a surprisingly sharp rate' is not the same as saying 'prices are crashing.' Even if they meant the same thing, it would be wrong to put the latter in quotation marks and present it as a direct quote."

"'Right only about Gangnam' implies that my remarks about other areas were incorrect, but I clearly referred only to major areas of Seoul, namely Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa," Lee continued.

"I never said that 'housing prices across all of Seoul are crashing,' so the claim that I was 'right only about Gangnam' is also fake news," he added.

At a Cabinet meeting he chaired at Cheong Wa Dae the previous day, Lee commented on recent developments in the Seoul metropolitan area housing market, saying, "The number of homes listed for sale in Seoul is rising rapidly, while transaction volume is falling sharply."

"Actual transaction prices in major areas are also falling at a surprisingly sharp rate, although that is not the case everywhere," he said. "There are various views on the outlook for housing prices in the Seoul metropolitan area."

Following his remarks, a media outlet reported that some people were finding it difficult to perceive any actual decline in housing prices, noting that prices were rising in most parts of Seoul except the three Gangnam districts.

Citing data from the Korea Real Estate Board, the outlet reported that housing prices rose in 22 of Seoul's 25 districts during the final week of October, with Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa being the only exceptions.

                                                                                                         Park Young-hoon