Lamborghini and Ferrari in Rental Housing Parking Lot... Lease Renewal Despite Violations

Many High-End Vehicles in Public Rental Housing
"Poor Enforcement Encourages Evasion"

The sight of luxury foreign cars and the like in public rental housing, which is provided as part of residential welfare for ordinary citizens, has been featured in the news several times. Among these, a significant number of cases have been found where residents of public rental housing possess assets exceeding the entry standard value, such as high-priced foreign cars.

Lamborghini Aventador SVJ (This photo is not directly related to the article content)

According to data submitted by LH and the Housing Management Corporation to Jang Cheol-min, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea (Daejeon Dong-gu) on the 19th, there were 61 households owning high-priced vehicles exceeding the public rental housing entry criteria.

The selection criteria for public rental housing tenants require that households without homes must have total assets of 255 million KRW (permanent) or 361 million KRW (national), and vehicle value must be 36.83 million KRW or less.

However, among current residents, many were found to own luxury foreign cars such as sports cars like Ferrari and Maserati, as well as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Jeep, and Genesis, which exceed the tenant criteria. Notably, some of these households had even defaulted on rent payments.

The household with the most expensive vehicle owns a BMW (model iXxDrive50) in the Gwangju Areum Village 1 complex, with the current car price nearing 97.94 million KRW, close to 100 million KRW. The waiting list for this complex has 44 applicants.

Poor Enforcement Encourages Evasion

Last October, a post appeared stating that foreign luxury cars worth several hundred million won, such as Ferrari and Bentley, were parked in the underground parking lot of the public rental apartment complex "Harbor Line 8 Complex" supplied by SH Corporation in Hang-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul. [Photo source=Online community]

National rental housing allows residents to live worry-free for up to 30 years by paying a low deposit and monthly rent in the 100,000 KRW range. Because of this, the competition for national rental apartments in the metropolitan area is fierce, and the eligibility criteria are strict.

For permanent rental housing aimed at socially vulnerable groups, applicants cannot apply if their combined assets?including real estate, vehicles, and financial assets?exceed 255 million KRW. Additionally, if the vehicle value exceeds about 36 million KRW, eligibility is revoked. In practice, only domestic sedans or mid-sized sports utility vehicles (SUVs) are allowed.

However, residents owning foreign cars or luxury sports cars are openly living in these homes. Lax entry conditions and poor management have allowed inappropriate individuals to benefit.

This ultimately means many have falsified their qualifications to move in. It has been pointed out that it is common for people to register their luxury vehicles under their parents' or corporate names to win rental housing lotteries.

National rental apartments allow residents to live worry-free for up to 30 years by paying a low deposit and monthly rent in the 100,000 KRW range. Due to this, the subscription competition rate for national rental apartments in the metropolitan area is high, and the eligibility criteria are strict. In particular, permanent rental apartments are offered at prices much lower than market rates for socially vulnerable groups such as basic livelihood security recipients, elderly living alone, North Korean defectors, and multicultural families, making the conditions even more stringent. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article.
[Photo by Asia Economy]

Some voices argue that poor enforcement encourages evasion. A netizen currently living in rental housing lamented, "The management office announced that 'high-value vehicles cannot be registered, so get a visitor pass for long-term visits.'"

Despite ongoing criticism of these issues, LH's enforcement occurs only about once every two years. A bigger problem is that even when disqualified vehicles are detected, eviction is not immediate but deferred.

According to the current 'Public Housing Work Guidelines,' even if it is confirmed at renewal that assets exceed the standard value for permanent or national rental housing, renewal is allowed once. This is why such cases are found annually, Jang Cheol-min pointed out.

Jang Cheol-min said, "The renewal deferral for households owning high-value assets could unfairly take away opportunities from those who are more qualified and meet the entry conditions perfectly. For residents with assets exceeding the standard value, instead of blanket renewal deferrals, there should be a set period for eviction or asset disposal so that rental housing benefits truly reach those in need."

As of October, the total number of applicants waiting to move into complexes where high-priced vehicles exceeding entry criteria were found was 4,666.

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