Assemblyman Jo O-seop Questions the Effectiveness of the Vacant House Information System

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corporation (hereinafter LX) established the vacant house information system ‘Gonggarang’ to revitalize vacant house transactions, but it has been pointed out that the system’s effectiveness is greatly diminished due to the almost nonexistent number of registered vacant houses.

According to the National Assembly inspection data submitted by Assemblyman Jo Oseop (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Buk-gu Gap) from LX on the 5th, only 159 vacant houses were registered in the vacant house information system ‘Gonggarang,’ including 157 in Jeonbuk Province and 2 in Chungbuk Province.

The vacant house information system ‘Gonggarang’ began full-scale operation in 2018 after investing about 1.2 billion KRW in the system (Phase 1 internal network construction project) and built a transaction information system in Phase 2.

LX identifies vacant houses by analyzing electricity and water usage through the vacant house information system, and local governments conduct field surveys to register vacant houses.

LX estimates 685,000 houses as vacant, and currently, 11 metropolitan cities/provinces and 32 local governments have completed or are conducting field surveys.

Among these, 23,602 houses were confirmed as vacant, but only 0.7% (159 houses) were registered in the vacant house transaction information system.

To register a vacant house, the owner’s consent to disclose information is required, but this process has not been properly conducted, resulting in unregistered status.

Regarding this, Assemblyman Jo stated, “The controversy from the early operation of the transaction information system arises because, in large cities, vacant house owners are waiting for reconstruction or have entangled interests, so they are not immediately selling. There is no reason for vacant house owners to voluntarily provide personal information to ‘Gonggarang.’”

LX explained that the vacant house transaction information support system (Phase 2 construction project) service within the vacant house information system was launched in July, so the number of registered vacant houses is low; however, the issue of owners’ consent to disclose personal information was anticipated from the planning stage of the system four years ago.

In fact, LX’s discussions regarding personal information began in January 2017 during the basic project planning and have been ongoing annually.

Moreover, although owners can directly register their vacant houses through identity verification in the vacant house transaction information system, not a single vacant house has been registered since its launch.

This is not a problem of the system’s launch timing but occurs because the issue of owners’ consent to disclosure has not been resolved, indicating that LX pushed the project forward without measures for personal information consent.

Assemblyman Jo said, “Transactions through the vacant house system can only be effective when the issue of consent to provide personal information is somewhat resolved,” and added, “LX must prepare more fundamental measures for personal information consent and revitalization of vacant house transactions to enhance the effectiveness of ‘Gonggarang,’ which costs 200 million KRW annually.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.