Seoul: President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating dropped to 46.3 percent this week, a poll showed Monday, marking its second straight weekly decline.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the poll was conducted by Realmeter and commissioned by the EKN newspaper. It revealed that the positive assessment of Lee's job performance fell by 2.1 percentage points from a week before, while his negative assessment rose by 1.5 percentage points to 49.5 percent.

Realmeter attributed the decline to a controversy surrounding the sale of Lee's apartment and his remarks suggesting higher property holding taxes, coupled with a sharp drop in the stock market. The controversy erupted when records showed that the buyers of Lee's apartment in Seongnam, south of Seoul, paid only part of the purchase price upfront. Lee and his wife effectively loaned the unpaid portion to the buyers until the balance is paid.

Further intensifying public scrutiny, Lee hinted at the possibility of raising property holding taxes to help stabilize runaway housing prices during a public discussion on real estate policy last week, insisting there was broad consensus.

The weekly survey, conducted on 2,505 people aged 18 and older from Monday to Friday, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

In a separate survey conducted by the same pollster, support for the ruling Democratic Party fell by 1.8 percentage points from a week earlier to 41.3 percent, while support for the main opposition People Power Party rose by 0.6 percentage points to 40.6 percent. This poll, conducted on 1,001 individuals aged 18 and over Thursday and Friday, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.