Kyungsilryeon "SH Corporation, Magok Apartment Overpriced Sale... Deliberate Cost Concealment"

On the 4th, Gyeongshilryeon held a press conference condemning SH Corporation for concealing cost data.

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH Corporation) has been accused of deliberately concealing the cost data of public apartments in the Magok district of Seoul.

The Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) held a press conference on the day and stated, "The cost data for the Magok district, which SH Corporation claimed to have lost, was submitted to a National Assembly member's office last month," adding, "They deliberately concealed the cost data and deceived the court and citizens with false statements."

According to CCEJ, SH Corporation submitted evidence to the appellate court of the administrative lawsuit on December 22 last year, stating that "the design specifications for Magok Complex 15 are presumed to have been lost during the office relocation process." However, on the 15th of last month, SH Corporation reportedly submitted the cost data, including the design specifications for Magok Complex 15, to the office of Ha Tae-kyung, a member of the People Power Party.

In April 2019, SH Corporation refused CCEJ's information disclosure request for detailed documents such as design specifications and subcontracting details for the Magok and Naegok districts, and classified them as non-disclosable. In July of the same year, CCEJ filed an administrative lawsuit at the Seoul Administrative Court seeking cancellation of the disposition.

The first-instance court ruled in favor of CCEJ and ordered partial disclosure of the data in April last year. However, it accepted SH Corporation's claim that there were no documents regarding the design specifications for Magok Complex 15.

CCEJ refuted SH Corporation's claim, stating, "Detailed documents should naturally exist based on the law," and filed an appeal. SH Corporation is also known to have filed an appeal, refusing to accept partial disclosure decisions citing trade secrets and other reasons, and the second trial is ongoing.

In response, CCEJ declared, "We will report SH officials who submitted false documents and deceived Seoul citizens to the prosecution and hold them accountable," urging, "Seoul mayoral candidates must present fundamental reform plans for SH Corporation."

Ha Tae-kyung, a member of the People Power Party, said, "The reason Seoul City hid the cost of Magok Complex 15 during Mayor Park Won-soon's administration was to conceal excessive sales profits. It is suspicious that construction costs rose more than inflation compared to the previous administration of former Mayor Oh."

According to data presented by Ha, the sale price per pyeong (3.3 square meters) of Balsan Complex 4 during former Mayor Oh Se-hoon's term was 5.98 million KRW, whereas the construction cost per pyeong of Magok Complex 15 during Mayor Park Won-soon's term was 12.18 million KRW.

Ha also mentioned that Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Byeon Chang-heum was formerly the president of SH Corporation and referred to allegations of speculation by employees of Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) in new towns, stating, "Minister Byeon is the root cause of real estate corruption," and added, "Appointing such a person as the Minister of Land is no different from trying to cover up corruption."

SH Corporation released a rebuttal statement on the day, saying, "Regarding the first-instance court's request for data submission, the relevant documents were scattered across various business departments, so it took time to locate them," and emphasized, "We never intentionally failed to submit documents and have completed submitting the related data for the second trial."

They also criticized, "Once the trial concludes, we will decide on disclosure accordingly, and it is inappropriate for a party involved in ongoing litigation to hold a press conference."

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