Winning a Housing Lottery → Fake Divorce → Winning Again... Trying for Lotto Housing Lottery Ends in Handcuffs

Illegal Address Registration, Subscription Account Trading, and Unauthorized Resale
Imprisonment up to 3 Years or Fines up to 30 Million Won

A couple, Mr. and Mrs. A, who lived with their three children in Gimhae-si, Gyeongnam, divorced after Mrs. A won a special multi-child housing subscription under her name. Mr. A registered on official documents that he would directly raise the three children after the divorce and separated the household. He then applied again for the special multi-child housing subscription under his own name and won. According to the authorities' investigation, the couple and their three children continued to live at the same address even after the divorce, raising suspicions that the divorce was a sham to receive the special housing subscription.

Multiple cases suspected of sham divorces or sham address registrations to win apartment subscriptions have been uncovered, leading to police investigations.

On the 15th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it had detected 125 suspicious cases of illegal subscriptions and unlawful resale during inspections of housing complexes sold in the first half of last year, and referred the cases to the police for investigation.

This inspection targeted 26 nationwide complexes with a high likelihood of illegal subscriptions, based on monitoring results by the Korea Real Estate Board that analyzed subscription competition rates and price trends among complexes sold in the first half of last year.

Among the detected cases, there were 100 cases of sham address registration, 14 cases of subscription account trading, 9 cases of sham divorce, and 2 cases of illegal resale.

Cases by Type of Fraudulent Subscription

Cases of sham address registration continue to be uncovered.

Mr. B, a city hall official, moved his registered address sequentially from Daejeon to Seoul, then back to Daejeon, Daegu, and Seoul again over several months, while originally residing in the area of his workplace.

Mr. B applied for a housing subscription and won a special first-time homebuyer supply in Seoul, then registered his address back to the area of his workplace, leading to allegations of sham address registration.

There are also cases of illegal trading of subscription accounts.

Mr. C from Chuncheon, Gangwon-do; Mr. D from Hongseong; Mr. E from Hoengseong; and Mr. F from Ansan, Gyeonggi-do?all newlyweds?applied for apartments in Sejong through a subscription broker and won the special newlywed supply.

The Ministry of Land suspects that they sold their subscription accounts by transferring their digital certificates for several tens of millions of won.

Regarding sham divorces, the Ministry explained, "In the case of public housing special supply for newlyweds, couples married 5 to 7 years receive 1 point, whereas single-parent families with children under 2 years old receive 3 points, creating an incentive for sham divorces."

Cases by Type of Fraudulent Subscription

There were also fraud cases related to illegal resale.

Mr. G, who held a pre-sale right, sold it to Mr. H during the resale restriction period for a premium of 120 million won, then sold the same apartment's pre-sale right again to Mr. I for a premium of 350 million won without Mr. I knowing about the previous transaction, and then disappeared.

The Ministry warned, "This case shows the risks of illegal resale purchase behavior."

The Ministry referred all illegal subscription winners and illegal resale actors to the police for investigation on charges including violations of the Housing Act and requested administrative actions from the relevant local governments.

Illegal subscriptions are punishable by up to 3 years imprisonment or fines up to 30 million won, and if the illegal gains exceed 10 million won, fines up to three times the amount can be imposed. Additionally, housing supply contracts are canceled and subscription eligibility is revoked for 10 years.

The Ministry stated, "This year, we will develop an algorithm to inspect illegal activities, monitor subscription statuses for all housing complexes, expand inspection personnel to double the scope of illegal subscription inspections, and conduct planned investigations into illegal resale activities within regulated areas."

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