Residents Are Furious... Which Construction Company Has the Most Defects?

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Reveals Top 20 Construction Companies by Defect Judgments
Daesong Leads in Defect Judgments Over the Past 6 Months

Over the past five years, the construction company with the highest cumulative number of defect judgments was GS Construction. Additionally, based on the most recent six months, Daesong had the highest number of defect cases.

Temporary reinforcement structures have been installed in the underground parking lot of Namyangju Byeollae First Foret Apartment, where reinforcing steel bars were found to be missing, and a notice has been posted. Photo by Heo Younghan younghan@

On the 24th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport disclosed the status of defect handling applications submitted to the Defect Review Dispute Mediation Committee (Defect Committee) and the "Top 20 Construction Companies by Number of Defect Judgments."

Following the initial disclosure of Defect Committee statistics in September last year, the Ministry decided to publish the status of defect dispute resolutions and the top 20 construction companies by defect judgments twice a year to ensure the public's right to know. The Defect Committee was established by the Ministry in 2009 to resolve disputes related to defects in multi-family housing as an alternative to court proceedings.

Ranking of Construction Companies with the Most Defects in the Last 6 Months
[Image source: Provided by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Yonhap News]

From last September to February of this year, the construction company that received the highest number of detailed defect judgments from the Defect Committee was Daesong, with 246 cases.

Hyundai Engineering ranked second with 109 cases, followed by GV General Construction with 85 cases. Taeyoung Construction and Plus Construction, both undergoing workout processes, tied for fourth place with 76 cases each. Next were Siin Construction in sixth place (72 cases), Daewoo Construction seventh (52 cases), Shinho Construction eighth (50 cases), Woomi Construction ninth (45 cases), and Seohan tenth (39 cases).

From 11th to 20th place were Jeil Construction (38 cases), GS Construction (34 cases), Daewoo Industrial Development (29 cases), Buwon Construction (25 cases), Hanyang (23 cases), Kolon Global (21 cases), Daekwang Geonyeong and Hoban Construction (20 cases each), and POSCO E&C and Lotte Construction (19 cases each).

List of Construction Companies with Numerous Defects in Cebu Over the Past 5 Years
[Image Source=Provided by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Yonhap News]

Ranking by the number of detailed defect judgments over the recent five years from January 2019 to last February, GS Construction held the unfortunate top spot. During this period, GS Construction was judged to have 1,646 detailed defects by the Defect Committee. GS Construction caused significant controversy last year due to the collapse accident of the underground parking lot in Geomdan New Town, Incheon. Second place was Gyeryong Construction Industry with 533 cases, followed by Daebang Construction with 513 cases. Fourth was SM Shipping with 413 cases, and fifth was Daemyung General Construction with 368 cases. Daewoo Construction (360 cases), DL E&C (326 cases), Dongyeon General Construction (251 cases), Daesong (249 cases), and Lotte Construction (221 cases) also ranked within the top ten.

The Defect Committee handled an average of about 4,300 defect dispute cases annually over the past five years. Of the 11,803 cases reviewed for defect judgments, 6,483 were actually judged as defects, accounting for about 55%. By defect type, functional failure was the most common at 10.1%, followed by cracks (9.1%), peeling and detachment (9.1%), condensation (7.5%), and leakage (6.1%).

To promptly resolve defect disputes that threaten residents' safety, the Ministry has revised related regulations to require that for serious defects such as reinforced concrete cracks, rebar exposure, structural cracks, and subsidence, the Defect Committee chairman’s decision must be obtained and the subcommittee’s review and resolution completed within 30 days. This revision will take effect starting the 26th.