Even Government Officials Involved in Real Estate Crimes... 1,493 Investigated on President Lee's Orders

Results of Special Crackdown on Real Estate Crimes
President Lee: "We Will Eradicate Malicious Real Estate Crimes"
640 Referred for Prosecution, 7 Arrested for False Special Allocations and Fictitious Sales Reports
Second Crackdown Underway

There have been a series of recent cases uncovered in which individuals pretended to be employed by family-owned corporations to gain eligibility for special allocations in new apartment applications, or submitted false transaction reports at prices 180 million won higher than the actual sales price, only to terminate the contracts and inflate property values. As a result of the first special crackdown on real estate crimes, conducted over five months from October 17 of last year until March 15 of this year under the direction of President Lee Jae-myung, the government investigated 1,493 people, referred 640 for prosecution, and arrested seven.

Source: President Lee Jae-myung's X (formerly Twitter)

On March 24, President Lee wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "We will root out the vicious real estate crimes that are ruining the country. Without normalizing the catastrophic 'real estate republic,' there is no future for Korea," and released the document titled "Results of the First Special Crackdown on Real Estate Crimes and Plan for the Second Special Crackdown." By personally releasing the report prior to the official announcement, President Lee reaffirmed his administration's strong stance against activities that disrupt the real estate market.

This crackdown was led by the “Council for Countermeasures against Illegal Real Estate Activities,” under the Office for Government Policy Coordination. By type, the number of people investigated included 448 for disrupting the order of housing supply, 293 for farmland speculation, 254 for illegal brokerage and price manipulation, 218 for name lending and unregistered pre-sales, and 199 for redevelopment-related corruption. Of those referred for prosecution, farmland speculation led with 249 people, followed by illegal brokerage and price manipulation (120), name lending and unregistered pre-sales (107), disruption of housing supply order (77), and redevelopment-related corruption (76). Currently, 599 individuals remain under investigation.

The crackdown revealed that three members of a family in North Chungcheong Province were referred for prosecution on charges of falsifying documents to make it appear as if they were employed at a family-owned agricultural corporation in Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju, thereby fraudulently obtaining eligibility for the "special supply for previous institution employees." Although residing in Busan, each member won an apartment allocation, and one of them was found to have resold the apartment for an illicit gain of 20 million won. In Seoul, three individuals were referred for prosecution for submitting false sales reports at prices 180 million won higher than the actual transaction price, then canceling the contracts to inflate prices before reselling the apartments to third parties. In Busan, 35 licensed real estate agents were referred for prosecution after forming a group to block joint brokerage with non-members and colluding to ensure transactions occurred exclusively among members. In addition, the government referred individuals involved in redevelopment-related corruption, farmland speculation, and disruption of the housing supply order for prosecution.

By occupation, licensed real estate agents accounted for the largest group with 132 individuals, and public officials and others made up an additional 43. This demonstrates that the crackdown has expanded beyond simple speculative forces to include those who distort transaction order or have interests directly linked to policy and administrative processes. By type, disruption of housing supply order accounted for the largest group with 448 people, followed by farmland speculation (293), illegal brokerage and price manipulation (254), name lending and unregistered pre-sales (218), redevelopment and reconstruction-related corruption (199), and planned real estate schemes (74).

This is not the first time President Lee has directly targeted real estate market manipulation. At a cabinet meeting on October 14 last year, President Lee defined false and exaggerated advertising and suspicious real estate price manipulation using artificial intelligence (AI) as “market-disrupting activities,” ordering strict measures and fundamental countermeasures. Then, at the senior aides’ meeting on March 6, he named real estate crimes as one of the “seven major irregularities,” alongside drug and stock market crimes, and directed that systems be improved and rigorously enforced so that those seeking illicit gains face losses so severe that recovery becomes nearly impossible.

The government began its second special crackdown on March 16, which will run until October 31. On March 26, it plans to provide additional details on the results of the first crackdown and announce plans for the second phase. The government intends to continue follow-up investigations focusing on issues that have recently sparked controversy, such as price collusion, farmland speculation, and disruption of the housing supply order.

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