7 out of 10 victims by 2030
The government has decided to investigate cases of rental damage advice and ask the police to investigate 106 cases suspected of rental fraud. Most of them, including the so-called “Villa King” case, were “non-capital gap investments” (jeonse sales and sales), and the total damage is estimated at more than 17.1 billion won.
On the 20th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it would first request the National Police Agency to investigate 106 cases of suspected jeonse fraud among the 687 cases received from the charter damage support centre, in which there are more victims or suspected collusion.
In this first investigation request there were 16 cases related to the so-called king of villas, who died while he was the owner of 1,139 villas and offices in the metropolitan area, causing damage to many tenants. Most of them, including this one, were non-capital gap investments. For example, after purchasing a number of villas in Seoul using the canned jeonse method, in which each person received a jeonse deposit with no equity and paid the balance, when it became difficult to return the deposit, three 40-something rental operators sold all the villas to a corporation that existed on paper and which disappeared became the subject of an investigation.
There were 10 companies involved in the 106 cases of suspected charter fraud and 42 suspects were investigated. Landlords accounted for the majority with 25 people, followed by certified real estate agents (6 people), landlords and real estate agents (4 people), recruiters (4 people), and architects (3 people).
As for commercial areas, Seoul accounted for the majority with 52.8%, followed by Incheon (34.9%) and Gyeonggi (11.3%). Gangseo-gu in Seoul, Michuhol-gu in Incheon and Bucheon-si in Gyeonggi suffered much damage.
The majority of charter fraud suspects were 40 years old at 42.9%. Most of the victims were 30 years old (50.9%) and 20 years old (17.9%), which are in great demand for new villas.
In the case of the Villa King case, the landlord Mr. Kim died, but as the police investigation into the whole crime, such as collusion arranging, is ongoing, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation plans to cooperate with the investigation by providing data such as consultancy records and the content of the investigation and analysis of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport together when receiving damages. Furthermore, we plan to request further investigations in the future through in-depth investigations and analyzes of other damage cases.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation plans to reorganize the current “Real Estate Transaction Analysis Planning Team” into the “Real Estate Consumer Protection Planning Group” from 27 to strengthen the protection function of real estate consumers.
Reporter Ok Seong-gu, Sejong
