Leading contenders in the race to be the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea cite real estate as a policy area where the current administration took the biggest misstep, but ironically they vow to push tougher policies in the same vein.

Rather than trying to change the course of the Moon Jae-in administration’s failed policy, they show that they adhere to its existing anti-market view of those who have houses as speculators or exploiters of those who don’t.

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung’s proposal is most radical. In a debate with lawmakers and experts Tuesday, he proposed the establishment of a new public enterprise as a solution to soaring housing prices.

Under his proposal, the enterprise purchases homes if housing prices fall then leases them to the public. If housing prices jump, it puts its homes in stock on the market.

This neglects a basic market principle that prices are determined through the mechanism of supply and demand.

It is similar to a system in which the government purchases and stockpiles agricultural products such as rice, and releases them into the market in order to stabilize prices.

Houses are not farm produce. The government cannot adjust supply and demand as timely as it does with agricultural products.

Above all, this idea is almost infeasible. The country’s aggregate housing market price is estimated to go over 5,000 trillion won ($4.4 trillion). It is unconvincing that just a public enterprise can control prices in the housing market. Experts say that if it wants to influence housing prices, it should possess at least 10 percent of the market. The required fund would reach more than 500 trillion won. How can it raise such a large fund?

He also said that if elected as president, he would increase the tax burden on those who own unnecessary property to the extent that they will suffer losses.

Former party chair Lee Nak-yon held a press conference on the day and vowed to propose three bills that would actualize “the public concept of land ownership.” The bills put an upper limit on housing land ownership and authorize the government to collect development profits.

But similar past laws that limited housing land ownership and called for the government to take development profits were ruled unconstitutional in the 1990s. The Constitutional Court ruled that they severely restrict or gainsay private ownership. Lee says he will push the bills after softening restrictions and that he plans to spend additional tax expected from the bills on housing welfare.

Little changed in the presidential hopefuls’ view of the real estate market. They vow to curb housing prices by suppressing the market.

About 60 percent of the country’s total households live in houses that they own. In this market, excessive control over ownership will only cause backlash and deepen conflicts between those who own properties and those who don’t.

For the past four years, the Moon administration announced real estate policies on 24 occasions, but housing prices in Seoul still surged 86 percent.

The ruling party had a crushing defeat in the April 7 by-elections amid explosive voter dissatisfaction over punitive taxation on real estate. To regain support from voters, it decided to push a new unprecedented policy to impose a comprehensive holding tax on owners of houses “in the top 2 percent” in terms of state-assessed value.

Prices of Seoul apartments rose 13 percent in the first half of this year, lifting the increase rate to a 19-year high.

Due to the three laws on house leases legislated unilaterally by the ruling party, the number of houses available for jeonse -- two year leases that require large deposits but no rent -- dropped sharply.

In this situation, presidential contenders of the ruling party are trying to strengthen the Moon administration’s failed property policy.

Populist policies will bruise the national economy. Any policy to control housing prices and supply through direct intervention by the government will produce side effects.

The next government should take the first step to solve problems by restoring suppressed market functions.