Seocho District Makes "Find Ancestors' Land" Service Available Online Without Documents

Omitting document submission with consent to Joint Use of Administrative Information
Expected to benefit the digitally vulnerable, including the elderly

The Seocho District Office in Seoul (headed by District Mayor Jun Sungsoo) announced on the 22nd that, thanks to improvements to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's "Find Ancestors' Land Service," applicants can now easily locate land owned by their deceased ancestors without submitting separate documents, as long as they consent to the Joint Use of Administrative Information.

View of Seocho-gu Office. Provided by Seocho-gu.

The "Find Ancestors' Land Service" is a system that informs heirs of the land ownership status of their deceased ancestors. Until now, applicants had to go through the inconvenience of obtaining and submitting inheritance-related documents such as family relationship certificates and basic certificates themselves. Since the 12th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has improved the system so that, for online applications via the National Spatial Information Integration Platform, applicants can apply immediately by simply consenting to the provision of information, with no need to submit any supporting certificates at all.

With this improvement, if an applicant consents to the Joint Use of Administrative Information, the responsible public official will directly verify the relevant information through the government network. By visiting with only an ID card, civil petitions can be resolved in a single visit, which is expected to reduce both time and financial burdens. In particular, it is expected to provide substantial help to the digitally vulnerable, such as elderly people who are not familiar with online issuance.

The service can be requested at the Real Estate Information Division of the Seocho District Office or at civil service centers of local governments nationwide. Online applications through the Government24 portal are also available; in that case, a joint certificate or a simple authentication is required. For more details, contact the Real Estate Information Division of the Seocho District Office at 02-2155-6919.

Last year, Seocho District provided information on 13,868 land parcels (a little over 13.01 million square meters) of ancestors' land to 3,588 people through this service. Applying the national standard land average officially assessed land price of 249,607 won per square meter, the total value amounts to about 3.248 trillion won, which is roughly twice the recalculated 2024 amount of 1.94 trillion won. In addition, the district is providing cadastral information such as certified copies of land registers free of charge so that residents can confirm the ownership and location of their ancestors' land.

Seocho District Mayor Jun Sungsoo said, "By expanding the Joint Use of Administrative Information service, we expect to reduce residents' burden of preparing documents and to make it easier for residents who are not familiar with digital services to use this service," adding, "We will strengthen resident-centered land administration so that everyone can access administrative services without discrimination."