"Equipped with All Speculation Tactics"‥ Gyeonggi-do Special Judicial Police Crack Down on Multiple Cases of Illegal Real Estate Speculation

60 People Booked for Address Falsification, Real Estate Market Disruption, Unqualified and Unregistered Brokerage
YouTuber Illegally Brokered Land Worth 30 Billion Won and Pocketed 2.8 Billion Won

File photo [Asia Economy DB]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] A large number of real estate illegal transaction offenders, such as those who fraudulently obtained apartment sales by falsifying their actual residence, colluded on housing prices, and systematically obstructed legitimate transactions, have been caught by judicial authorities.

The Gyeonggi Province Fair Special Judicial Police Unit announced on the 8th, "From August to October, we investigated real estate speculation activities and identified 60 people suspected of violating the Housing Act or the Real Estate Brokerage Act."

By type, there were 14 cases of fraudulent subscription, 43 cases of market disruption such as housing price collusion, and 3 cases of unqualified or unregistered brokerage.

One major crime case involved Mr. A, a fraudulent subscriber of Seongnam Wirye Xi The City, who submitted false documents to deceive his actual residence by applying for the newlywed special supply (105:1), which had a lower competition rate than the general supply (618:1), to increase his chances of winning the subscription.

Mr. A lived with his spouse and children in Dangjin, Chungnam, but registered his residence solely at his mother's house in Seongnam City and received 30% of the newlywed special priority supply.

Among the 14 suspects using this method, 3 were sent to the prosecution, and it was revealed that they gained a total of 9.8 billion KRW in illegal profits.

Mr. B, a prospective resident of a newly built apartment in Suwon, posted on an online cafe a notice to ban the use of seven real estate brokerage offices advertising low-priced listings and to withdraw their listings, urging the use of only nine specific brokerage offices, thereby inducing brokerage requests to certain offices.

Mr. C and 43 others, also prospective residents of the same apartment, reported seven real estate brokerage offices' listings as false 81 times over a month on portal sites, even though the listings were legitimate, thereby obstructing legitimate brokerage activities.

In particular, real estate office D, which received 34 reports in one month, suffered sanctions such as listing withdrawal, advertising restrictions, and prohibition of new listings, causing significant damage to their livelihood.

'Real Estate Illegal Speculation Activities' Planned Investigation Results [Gyeonggi-do]

Illegal unqualified and unregistered brokerage activities using YouTube were also uncovered.

Famous land-related YouTuber Mr. E operated a real estate consulting company and sold properties entrusted by real estate brokerage offices at prices higher than the requested amount, agreeing to split the profit difference in half.

He brokered 16 land parcels in the Hwaseong area for 5.2 billion KRW and shared half of the 200 million KRW profit with licensed brokers, embezzling brokerage fees of 140 million KRW. The licensed brokers received an additional 57 million KRW in brokerage fees.

Mr. E also collected over 2.8 billion KRW in fees from unregistered and unqualified brokerage of 71 land parcels (14.2 billion KRW) in Hwaseong from four agricultural corporations and six landowners.

In this process, Mr. E showed meticulousness by issuing real estate consulting contracts and tax invoices, claiming that processing the fees as real estate consulting costs could reduce capital gains tax to conceal unqualified brokerage.

Under current law, unregistered brokerage operators and those who obstruct licensed brokers' work for fraudulent subscription or unfairly influencing real estate prices face imprisonment of up to three years or fines up to 30 million KRW.

Those who receive brokerage fees exceeding the legal limit face imprisonment of up to one year or fines up to 10 million KRW.

Unit Chief Kim Young-soo said, "Currently, illegal speculative activities are rampant throughout the real estate market, raising concerns about disorder in transaction order," and added, "We will thoroughly investigate illegal activities such as fraudulent subscriptions, housing price collusion, and unqualified brokerage."