Ministry of Land to Announce Non-Priority Subscription Reform This Month
Measures to Block Tactics Like False Address Registration for Higher Subscription Scores
Institutional improvement measures for non-priority subscription, which has been fueling overheating in the real estate subscription market and is popularly called 'jubjub' or 'lotto subscription,' will be announced within this month. It is likely that homeowners will be completely prohibited from subscribing, and residency areas will also be restricted.
Measures to prevent increasing the number of dependents through false address registration to raise subscription scores are also expected to be prepared. Hospital and pharmacy usage records can be used to verify dependents and actual residence.
A model house of a Seoul apartment for sale built on a site in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, on the afternoon of the 5th. Photo by Yonhap News
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced in the '2025 Major Work Promotion Plan' released on the 13th of last month that it will promote institutional improvements so that non-priority subscription housing can be supplied to actual homebuyers without homes.
Non-priority subscription is a system that reopens subscription for leftover units that were undersubscribed in the first and second subscription rounds or due to contract cancellations.
Non-priority subscription, known as 'lotto subscription,' can be applied for by anyone aged 19 or older residing in Korea regardless of subscription account membership, residency area, or number of owned houses. During the period of rapid house price increases, non-priority subscription was called 'lotto subscription' and caused overheating, so in May 2021, the government restricted eligibility to non-homeowners residing in the relevant area.
However, from the end of February 2023, when concerns about unsold units grew, the requirements for non-priority subscription for private apartments were significantly relaxed so that anyone could subscribe regardless of their residence area or number of houses owned. The problem is that as the sales market revived in a situation where anyone could 'jubjub,' the phenomenon of rushing into subscriptions with a 'let's just apply first' attitude reappeared.
In July last year, when 'Dongtan Station Lotte Castle' in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi Province conducted a non-priority subscription at prices from seven years ago, a staggering 2,945,000 applicants from one household flooded the Korea Real Estate Board's subscription website, causing it to crash.
About 630,000 people applied for the non-priority subscription of 'Hillstate Sejong River Park' in Sodam-dong, Sejong City, held last week.
56,8735 people applied for the non-priority subscription of one household in a different block of the same apartment conducted the day before. Simply calculated, nearly 1.2 million people applied for non-priority subscriptions in the same complex over two days.
The industry evaluates that this subscription fever was expected.
Since the units were supplied at prices from 2017, with an expected market price difference of 300 million to 400 million KRW, and with the non-priority subscription eligibility requirements expected to change within this month, it was regarded as the last 'lotto subscription' opportunity.
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