President Lee Jae Myung said he had instructed officials to review refinancing and extending the maturity of loans for owners of multiple homes, including registered rental business operators.

In the latest of his social media posts on clamping down on real estate speculation, Lee said on Friday he had ordered the Cabinet and the presidential office to report on lending regulations for homes newly acquired by preexisting homeowners, the current status of loan extensions and refinancing for existing landlords of multiple portfolios, and to propose firm regulatory measures.

Lee shared a news article reporting that financial authorities were considering applying the rent-to-interest(RTI) ratio when extending loans to rental business operators, but questioned why only the RTI rule was under review.

Lee argued that extending or refinancing a loan after its maturity is equivalent to issuing a new loan.

He suggested that extending or refinancing loans for existing multi-homeowners should be subject to the same lending restrictions as those for purchasing additional homes.

Lee added that if eliminating such loans at once would cause excessive shock, the government could consider a phased approach, emphasizing the need to dismantle what he described as a system driven by unearned real estate gains.