The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) continues struggling to win over voters in their 20s and 30s, as a series of controversies over housing, investment and criminal justice reform feeds a broader feeling that the party is not addressing the concerns of young adults.

While the liberal party used to enjoy larger support from young people compared with the conservative People Power Party, its members, especially lawmakers, are now perceived as presenting policies that make life harder for the younger generations.

The latest case of frustration erupting among young people was in response to a suggestion from DPK Rep. Hwang Hee, who last week proposed converting retired buses for use as temporary housing for young people to help provide relief from high housing prices.

“If they had seriously thought about what people in their 20s are actually worried about, I don’t think they could have come up with something like this,” said Kim, a 28-year-old office worker in Seoul. “Lawmakers should first ask themselves whether they would be willing to live there.”

Hwang later apologized for the blunder, which prompted a wave of artificial intelligence-generated memes mocking the lawmaker's proposal.

Park Chang-hwan, a professor at Jangan University, said the controversy struck a nerve because housing has become an increasingly immediate concern for young people, many of whom are struggling with rising "jeonse" deposits and monthly rents long before they can even consider buying a home.

“For ordinary people, it’s like suffering through a drought while the government talks about how to prepare for torrential rain,” Park said, arguing that policies aimed largely at curbing speculative real estate investment and purchases of high-priced homes fail to address the housing pressures many young people actually feel.

Many of the government's economic policies led by the ruling party have provided yet more sources of frustration.

Park, a 30-year-old office worker in Seoul, said he had been putting a substantial portion of his income into S&P 500 index exchange-traded funds (ETFs) through an individual savings account, but proposed changes affecting existing accounts caught him off guard.

“It seriously undermined my trust in the consistency of government policy,” he said, adding that the uncertainty made him consider investing directly in U.S.-listed ETFs instead.

The controversy came as the government tightened lending rules and other measures affecting how younger Koreans save, invest and gain access to the housing market. While the policies are primarily the work of the government as a whole, analysts say voters often judge the administration and ruling party together.

The DPK has also faced backlash over its push to abolish prosecutors’ supplementary investigative authority, an issue that has raised concern among young women about its potential impact on cases of violence against women, particularly over the handling of sex crimes and other offenses.

Recent polling illustrates the DPK’s difficulty with younger age groups.

According to Realmeter, support for the DPK among voters in their 20s has fluctuated sharply over the past six weeks, from 22.1 percent in the first week of July to 33.4 percent in the fifth week before falling back to 22.7 percent in the first week of August.

Support among those in their 30s has moved differently, standing at 27.8 percent in the first week of July and reaching 38.4 percent in the latest survey.

Overall, their support rates were far lower than the total average among all age groups, which ranged between 41.3 percent and 45.1 percent during the same period.

“The conservative shift among voters in their 20s and 30s and their departure from the DPK became more pronounced since the June 3 local elections,” said Eom Kyeong-young, head of the Zeitgeist Institute.

He said concerns over disparities in housing and financial assets, combined with the supplementary investigation issue, have increasingly cut across the gender divide that once sharply separated younger male and female voters.

Park cautioned against attributing the shift to any single controversy, describing the latest disputes as adding fuel to the fire.

“It’s not simply a matter of one or two policy mistakes,” Park said. The deeper problem, he argued, is a growing distance between the DPK and younger voters who do not see the party offering a convincing vision of their future.

Lee's eroding approval

The DPK’s difficulties are mirrored in President Lee Jae Myung’s approval ratings.

Lee’s approval rating fell to 43.3 percent in the latest Realmeter poll, the lowest level since he took office. His support among voters in their 20s was just 27.9 percent, 15.4 percentage points below his overall rating, while approval among those in their 30s stood at 33.2 percent.

Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said the problem should not be viewed simply as younger voters turning against the administration.

“This is not a matter of a generational encirclement caused by voters in their 20s and 30s abandoning the president,” Shin said, noting that worsening sentiment over housing is also pushing some voters in their 40s away.

He said Lee could face further erosion in his approval rating unless the government addresses housing concerns, and the DPK revisits the supplementary investigative authority issue.