The Korean government has decided to intensively examine suspected fraudulent housing subscription cases following a string of winners with housing subscription scores that appear disconnected from reality. The investigation will focus on the actual residency of parents and children among winners holding "perfect-score accounts" under the housing subscription point system.
The Real Estate Supervision Task Force under the Office for Government Policy Coordination announced Thursday that it will conduct an intensive investigation into suspected fraudulent subscription winnings jointly with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT). Key areas of investigation include fake address registrations, sham marriages and divorces, trading of subscription accounts and qualifications, and document forgery.
To thoroughly examine the actual residency of dependents, the government plans to check not only the "health insurance medical care details" but also the "health insurance qualification records" of adult children and the "jeonse and monthly rent records" of dependents. The authorities will also look into acts of forging documents to inflate the number of dependents or falsifying eligibility for special supply subscriptions recommended by institutions (for disabled persons, persons of national merit, etc.).
The investigation covers a total of 25,000 units across 43 complexes, including all housing complexes sold in regulated areas such as Seoul since July last year and popular complexes in other regions.
Among the major suspected cases, a brother and sister, identified as A and B, lived with their parents in a detached house but each registered fake addresses at "Building A" and "Building B" of an adjacent warehouse structure. They then applied for general supply (for members of homeless households) under the lottery system for a housing complex in Goyang and won.
C registered her address at an apartment owned by her former husband along with her two children even after divorcing him by mutual agreement. She then applied as a homeless person 32 times and won a general supply unit under the point system for a housing complex in Seoul.
In another case, a couple cohabiting without a marriage registration won a special supply subscription for newlyweds for a housing unit in Seoul. The following day, they registered their marriage and forged the marriage registration date on the marriage certificate.
To facilitate the investigation, the task force and MOLIT will increase on-site inspection personnel from eight to 15 for this comprehensive survey and extend the inspection period per complex from one day to three to five days. The investigation results are scheduled to be announced around the end of next month.
In addition, MOLIT plans to tighten the residency requirement from one year to three years to block short-term fake address registration schemes using adult children, and to make the submission of the "health insurance qualification records" of adult children mandatory as part of concurrent institutional improvements.
"If fraudulent subscriptions are confirmed through this comprehensive investigation, we will take strong measures including criminal punishment, contract cancellation, deposit forfeiture, and restrictions on subscription eligibility," said Kim Yong-soo, head of the task force.
