Like Winning the Lottery, Only to Lose: Surging Number of Disqualified Apartment Subscription Winners

53,867 Disqualified Over the Past Six Years
Accounts for 6.8% of All Cheongyak Home Winners
Most Common Cause: Errors in Calculating the Period of Not Owning a Home

Over the past six years, nearly 50,000 individuals across South Korea have lost their rights to newly built apartment allocations due to errors in point calculations or ineligibility. The most frequent reason for disqualification was mistakes in calculating the period of not owning a home.

According to data submitted by Assemblyman Yoo Sangbeom of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee in the National Assembly, based on information from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, between 2021 and August 20 of this year, a total of 791,856 people were selected for apartment allocations across the country via the Korea Real Estate Board’s subscription website Cheongyak Home. Of these, 53,867 people (6.8%) were later ruled ineligible.

An apartment complex in Songpa-gu, Seoul.

The number of disqualified winners by year was highest in 2021, when preference for new apartments and government control over high pre-sale prices overheated the subscription market, with 21,221 cases (an incident rate of 8.9%). The numbers then decreased to 13,813 in 2022 (7.8%), 6,052 in 2023 (5.3%), 6,188 in 2024 (5.2%), and 4,277 in 2025 (5.1%). As of August 20 of this year, 2,316 people (4.1%) have been disqualified and had their allocations canceled.

Analyzing 32,646 detected cases since eligibility management began in 2022, 'errors in calculating the period of not owning a home for the applicant or their spouse' (4,566 cases) was the most common reason. This was followed by 'household members owning a home or pre-sale rights without the applicant’s knowledge' (4,150 cases), and 'errors in selecting residential regions' (2,321 cases). There were also 1,132 cases where the applicant did not exclude themselves from the number of dependents when calculating the subscription score, leading to disqualification due to simple mistakes. Other frequent causes included exceeding the seven-year marriage period requirement for newlywed special allocations (1,178 cases), not meeting single applicant qualifications (1,397 cases), not meeting head of household requirements (1,076 cases), and exceeding the income criteria (1,021 cases), illustrating widespread issues with understanding the system.

Regionally, 49.1% (26,422 cases) of all disqualifications occurred in the Seoul metropolitan area, where subscription competition is particularly fierce. Gyeonggi Province recorded the largest share (17,205 cases, 31.9%), followed by Incheon (6,170 cases, 11.5%), South Chungcheong Province (3,709 cases, 6.9%), and both Seoul and South Gyeongsang Province (3,047 cases each, 5.7%).

Assemblyman Yoo Sangbeom said, "Because of complex regulations, there continues to be damage as people miscalculate their period of not owning a home or include themselves as dependents, resulting in canceled allocations." He added, "There is a need to fully implement a mandatory 'pre-qualification automatic verification system' in Cheongyak Home, which would filter out point-calculation errors at the application stage by linking resident registrations, family relations, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s home ownership verification system."

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