Massive Crackdown on 'Fraudulent Subscription and Illegal Supply'... 218 Cases Referred for Investigation

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Review of Housing Subscription in the Second Half of Last Year

Suspected cases of fraudulent subscription winning through special supply by false address relocation and other disguised moves have been detected in large numbers.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 30th that, as a result of the joint inspection of housing subscription and supply status in the first half of the year conducted with the Korea Real Estate Board, a total of 218 cases of supply order disruption were detected and referred to the National Police Agency for investigation.

A large number of suspected fraudulent subscription cases, where individuals won special supply through false address changes and other disguised moves, have been uncovered. The photo is unrelated to the article content. [Image source=Yonhap News]

This inspection was conducted in the first half of this year (January to June) targeting 40 complexes (24,263 households) suspected of fraudulent subscription among the complexes sold in the second half of last year.

Among the types of fraudulent subscriptions, false address relocation to obtain subscription qualifications accounted for the largest number with 135 cases.

There was also one case of fraudulent subscription where a spouse who owns a house and is married (cohabiting and raising two children) disguised as a single household without registering the marriage and applied for subscription.

In this investigation, 82 cases of illegal supply were detected where the developer and the winner colluded to contract not for the winning house (building and unit number) but for the house (royal floor) selected by the winner. This method involves receiving a provisional deposit of 5 million won and signing a supply contract disguised as a ‘first-come, first-served supply’ for unsold units.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to take strict measures against the 218 detected cases of supply order disruption by referring them to the National Police Agency for investigation, imposing criminal penalties for violations of the Housing Act, canceling contracts (recovering houses), and restricting housing subscription qualifications for the next 10 years.

Kim Hyo-jung, Director of Housing Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, “Illegal supply by developers is increasing in some complexes with low contract rates, so we will strengthen inspections of supply entities to establish a fair and transparent housing supply order.”

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