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Lee vows to curb speculative property market, lowers health crisis alert level

Published: 21 Oct. 2025, 19:41

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on Oct. 21. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Lee Jae Myung pledged Tuesday to mobilize all available resources to curb speculative demand, days after the government announced measures that tightened mortgages to rein in home prices in Seoul.

Lee made the remarks at a Cabinet meeting as the government rolled out new housing measures on Oct. 15, designating all of Seoul and 12 areas in Gyeonggi as speculative zones in a bid to curb rising housing prices in the capital region.

“We must focus all available policy measures to thoroughly suppress unproductive speculative demand that has triggered warning signs,” Lee said, urging government ministries to make all-out efforts to block activities that “distort” the economy.

Lee noted that the benchmark Kospi surpassed the 3,800 mark for the first time Monday, calling it a shift from past investment practices that were focused on investing in unproductive sectors toward a more diversified approach to grow assets.

“For this trend toward productive finance to take deeper root, society's perception must change through consistent and effective policies,” he said, underscoring the urgent need to rein in speculative demand.

With the health ministry recently lowering an alert level as a prolonged medical standoff eased, Lee said the damage to the people has been “immeasurable” because the previous administration had unilaterally pushed for medical reform without sufficient consultation.

On Monday, the government lifted the nation's top-level “serious” health crisis alert issued early last year following the mass resignation of trainee doctors.

The highest-level alert had been in place since February last year after thousands of trainee doctors walked off the job in protest of a plan to increase medical school enrollment by 2,000 to nearly 5,000 starting this year.

Medical students and trainee doctors decided to end their collective action after the government reversed course earlier this year, restoring the 2026 admissions quota to its previous level of about 3,000.

“I express my deepest gratitude to the medical staff, paramedics and all public officials who stood by the patients even under such challenging circumstances,” he said. “I also express my gratitude and apology to the people who suffered great inconvenience.”

Lee called on the relevant ministries to draw up a road map for strengthening essential public health care services to ensure that such a situation never happens again.

He also stressed that medical reform still remains necessary, saying it must be done in a “rational direction” and only after sufficient discussions with the public.

Yonhap