Vice Minister for Land and Infrastructure Lee Sang-kyeong has stepped down over a comment he made advising people to buy homes once the overheated housing market cools down, despite his own “gap investment” property dealings contradicting the administration’s policy.

In a press notice Friday, the land ministry announced the vice minister’s resignation, which was reportedly tendered to Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yun-duk around 8 p.m.

Lee recently appeared on a YouTube channel to explain measures announced on October 15 to rein in housing prices, which tightened housing loans and designated all of Seoul and 12 areas in Gyeonggi Province as regulated speculative zones.

The policy aims to prevent the practice of “gap investment,” in which a new homeowner concludes a lump-sum jeonse rental contract and uses the tenant’s money to finance the home purchase. 

The vice minister faced backlash as it was revealed that he purchased an apartment unit in Gyeonggi Province’s affluent Pangyo area last year for three-point-35 billion won, or around two-point-three million U.S. dollars, before renting it out on a jeonse contract worth one-point-48 billion won.

President Lee Jae Myung accepted his resignation on Saturday afternoon.