▲ A view of residential areas in Seoul, seen from Namsan.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced today (June 9) that it held three plenary meetings of the Jeonse Fraud Victim Support Committee in May, ultimately approving 618 cases as victims of jeonse fraud.
Of the approved cases, 579 were new applications, while 39 were cases where victim status was confirmed following appeals against previous decisions.
This brings the cumulative number of recognized victims to 39,121 since the enforcement of the Special Act on Assistance for Jeonse Fraud Victims in June 2023.
Regarding the scale of damages, 43.4% of cases involved deposits between 100 million won and 200 million won, followed by 41.8% for 100 million won or less, and 12.4% for deposits between 200 million won and 300 million won. The vast majority (97.6%) of cases involved deposits of 300 million won or less.
By region, damages were concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area (60.6%), followed by Daejeon (11.2%) and Busan (10.3%).
By housing type, multi-unit houses (28.9%) accounted for the most cases, followed by officetels (20.8%), multi-household houses (18.3%), and apartments (13.4%).
In terms of age, young people under 40 accounted for 76.0% of all victims.
The recognition rate for victim status among all reviewed cases was 60.4%.
Conversely, 22.6% of applications were rejected for failing to meet legal requirements, and 10.0% were excluded from support because they were able to recover their full deposits through priority repayment schemes.
The Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) has purchased 9,033 units so far as part of its project to acquire homes affected by jeonse fraud.
Under this program, LH receives the right of first refusal from victims, acquires the properties through auctions or public sales, and then provides them to the victims as public rental housing to ensure housing stability.
Victims can convert the auction margin—the difference between the normal purchase price and the lower winning bid—into a deposit, allowing them to continue living in the affected homes for up to 10 years.
Upon moving out, they can receive the auction margin to help recover their losses.
LH stated that it is accelerating the acquisition process, purchasing an average of 807 units per month from January to May of this year.
As of May 26, there were 22,628 requests from jeonse fraud victims for preliminary consultations regarding the purchase of affected homes.
Of these, 15,302 cases were determined to be "eligible for purchase" following the completion of reviews.
Tenants who have suffered from jeonse fraud can apply for victim recognition to the local government with jurisdiction over their residence. Once recognized as victims, they can receive guidance on various support measures through the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) Jeonse Fraud Support Center.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.