A group of licensed real estate agents who formed an organization to restrict joint brokerage with non-member agents — colluding to broker deals exclusively among themselves — has been referred to prosecutors en masse.
The National Investigation Headquarters (NIH) of the Korean National Police Agency said Wednesday that a five-month special crackdown on real estate crimes launched in October last year uncovered 1,493 suspects in total, including the collusion case, with 640 referred to prosecutors. Seven suspects facing serious charges were arrested.
The crackdown was a follow-up to the government's housing market stabilization measures. Police designated eight categories of illegal activity as priority investigation targets: housing price collusion and fraudulent transaction reporting aimed at inflating property prices, fraudulent subscription applications, insider-information-based speculation, reconstruction and redevelopment corruption, fraudulent land schemes, illegal farmland speculation, and title trust arrangements.
By category, supply order violations topped the list with 448 suspects, accounting for approximately 30% of the total. Farmland speculation followed with 293 suspects, and illegal brokerage activities including price manipulation came next with 254. By referrals to prosecutors, farmland speculation ranked highest at 249, followed by illegal brokerage (120), title trust violations (107), and redevelopment corruption (76).
Key cases included a scheme in which suspects filed a fraudulent property sale report at approximately 200 million won above the actual transaction price, then canceled the contract to inflate market prices before selling to a third party. Another case involved fraudulently obtaining eligibility for public rental housing through fake residency registration. Investigators also uncovered cases in which hundreds of millions of won in bribes were exchanged to secure redevelopment project contracts. Numerous cases of fraudulent land scheme operations — where suspects exaggerated development prospects to recruit land investors and embezzled billions of won — and farmland speculation involving purchases near planned development sites followed by illegal conversion and leasing were also detected.
Police said investigations are continuing for 599 suspects, accounting for approximately 40% of those identified. A second intensive crackdown is planned for seven months from April 16 through Oct. 31.
Police also plan to strengthen cooperation with related agencies including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), the National Tax Service, and the Financial Services Commission (FSC). "Illegal real estate activities are serious crimes that undermine market order and shift the damage onto the public," said Park Sung-ju, head of the National Investigation Headquarters. "Through the second special crackdown, we will further concentrate investigative resources on illegal activities such as housing price collusion."
