The whole neighborhood devastated by red stickers... "It looks like the tenant's tears of blood"

Last year, as hundreds of billions of won worth of jeonse fraud cases were repeatedly uncovered across the country, multiple multi-family houses in the Gangseo-gu area of Seoul, where large-scale jeonse fraud occurred, were put up for auction all at once. On the 31st, an online community posted a recent update titled "Current Status of Hwagok-dong." The post included a photo of an auction map. The auction map serves to check real estate currently undergoing auction.

Looking at the auction map photo, red marks labeled "경·공매" (court and public auctions) densely cover the Hwagok-dong area in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. According to court auction information, as of that day, there are a total of 236 residential buildings under auction in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu. The appraised value ranges from 100 million to 300 million won. Gangseo-gu was the administrative district with the highest number of jeonse fraud victims in Seoul last year. This is the aftermath of the "Villa King of Hwagok-dong" committing fraud against jeonse tenants. The number of cases exceeds 140, and the amount involved reaches 34 billion won.

[Photo by Online Community]

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Netizens commented, "We need to stop individuals from buying so many houses like that," "Isn't this a minefield of jeonse fraud?" "What about that neighborhood?" "It all looks like the tears of tenants," "How can the whole neighborhood be like this? It looks like a war zone," "All the families living there were evicted and lost the money they risked," "It looks more like a minefield than a map," and "Because penalties for fraud crimes are so light, they commit crimes so boldly."

Voluntary auction is a procedure in which a creditor puts real estate up for auction to recover a loan when a debtor who borrowed money secured by real estate fails to repay the principal and interest on time.
[Photo by Kim Dahee, Asia Economy]

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It is estimated that a significant number of houses affected by jeonse fraud last year have moved to collateral execution auctions. Collateral execution auctions, also called voluntary auctions, are procedures where creditors auction off real estate used as collateral when debtors fail to repay the borrowed money and interest on time. According to the Court Registry Information Plaza, the number of applications for the commencement of voluntary auctions on real estate (land, buildings, collective buildings, etc.) last year totaled 105,614, a 61% increase compared to 2022. Among these, the number of applications for collateral execution auctions on collective buildings in Seoul was 4,773, a 74.1% increase from the previous year.

On the same day, an online map showing the public auction situation around Bucheon Station in Bucheon City was also shared as a "jeonse fraud victim area map." The original poster noted that in Bucheon, there was even a building with 142 auctions. However, this was identified as unrelated to jeonse fraud. The map shared online shows many red public auction marks centered around Bucheon Station. However, this building is a residential property wholly owned by one developer and was put up for auction by a trust company, with no tenant damage reported.

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