Assemblyman Jo O-seop: "What’s the point of a 100 million won foreign car in public rental housing?"

Over 1,900 Cases Detected Including Income and Vehicle Value Exceedances... Thorough Inspection Needed for Ineligible Residents

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] There is ongoing controversy as cases of residents living in Seoul Metropolitan Government public rental housing despite exceeding eligibility criteria such as real estate ownership, income, and vehicle value are repeatedly occurring.

On the 20th, Assemblyman Jo O-seop (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Buk-gu Gap) revealed that over the past five years, there have been about 1,900 cases of ineligible residency detected in Seoul public rental housing due to income excess, illegal subleasing, and other reasons.

When examining ineligible residency by reason, there were 51 cases of illegal subleasing, 118 cases of real estate excess, 551 cases of income excess, 68 cases of vehicle excess, and 1,108 cases of home ownership, totaling 1,896 cases.

In particular, among ineligible residents, home ownership accounted for the largest proportion. Of the total 1,108 cases, 437 cases (39.4%) occurred in redevelopment rental housing, which accounts for 82% of all ineligible residency cases in redevelopment rental housing.

The eligibility criteria for redevelopment rental housing require that applicants either reside in the relevant maintenance district or be owners of land subject to sale, and be a household head without a home, qualifying as first or second priority in special supply households.

Special supply households in redevelopment rental housing are not subject to income criteria, so compared to other public rental housing where income criteria apply, residents tend to have relatively higher incomes, which is interpreted as the reason for the high number of ineligible residents owning homes.

Vehicle ownership exceeding eligibility criteria in Seoul public rental housing is also still pointed out as a problem.

Among ineligible residents in Seoul, 68 cases exceeded vehicle criteria. One tenant living in Happy Housing owned a Maserati Ghibli valued at 99.08 million KRW, and another tenant living in National Rental Housing owned a Mercedes-Benz E300 valued at 53.52 million KRW but was evicted due to exceeding the criteria.

These vehicles exceed the vehicle value limit of 24.68 million KRW for National Rental and Happy Housing by two to four times.

Assemblyman Jo O-seop said, “Public rental housing is provided at monthly rents of about 100,000 to 300,000 KRW to vulnerable groups with average monthly incomes of 100%, 70%, or 50% of urban worker households, depending on the type. The fact that residents own expensive vehicles or homes can lead to disputes over fairness, so thorough inspections of ineligible residents are necessary.”

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