Questions have been raised that Minister of Planning and Budget nominee Lee Hye-hoon and the spouse inflated the "number of dependents" in the process of winning a lottery-like subscription two years ago for a Ramian One Pentas apartment in Banpo-dong, Seoul, worth several billions of won. They allegedly kept their eldest son listed as unmarried and in the same household to increase the number of dependents.
According to documents obtained on Jan. 8 by Reform Party lawmaker Cheon Ha-ram's office from the Korea Real Estate Board (REB) and others, the nominee's husband applied on July 29, 2024 for the 137A type (exclusive area 137㎡, about 54 pyeong) at Ramian One Pentas. The nominee's husband then won the subscription in Aug. that year and paid the full 3.6784 billion won two months later. The apartment is currently trading in the 7 billion won range, with a price gain of more than 3 billion won.
At the time, the nominee's husband had a subscription score of 74. He received full points for the period without homeownership (32 points) and the length of savings subscription (17 points), plus 25 points for four dependents (the nominee and three sons). For that type, which had a competition ratio of 81 to 1, only eight units were offered for general sale; excluding one household selected by lottery, the remaining seven were allocated by the scoring system. The seven households' scores ranged from 74 to 80. The nominee's husband reportedly won with the lowest score of 74.
Under current rules, only unmarried children count as dependents, and their address on the resident registration must match the parents'. However, of the nominee's three sons, the eldest joined the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) in Sejong in Aug. 2023 and was reportedly living in a jeonse apartment in Sodam-dong, Sejong that the nominee contracted in July that year.
In addition, the nominee's eldest son married in Dec. 2023, a year before the subscription application. Two weeks before the wedding, he signed a jeonse lease for an apartment in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, with a 730 million won deposit. The following Jan., Professor Kim also lent 170 million won to the daughter-in-law at 2.4% annual interest to cover the remaining jeonse payment.
However, the nominee's eldest son did not file a marriage registration. Although he secured a jeonse home, he kept his household registration under the nominee couple without transferring his address. Coincidentally, two days after the subscription application deadline, on July 31, 2024, the eldest son moved his address to the Yongsan jeonse home.
At the time, the complex had as many as 40 detected cases of illegal subscriptions, including sham address transfers. The real estate industry raised suspicions that the nominee's winning subscription was a case of "sham unmarried" status. A sham unmarried status constitutes a disruption of the supply order under the Housing Act. Penalties include contract cancellation, a 10-year restriction on subscription eligibility, and up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won.
Reform Party lawmaker Cheon Ha-ram said, "It is suspected that illegal subscription was pursued by any means necessary, including a sham unmarried status, to increase assets," adding, "This warrants not only the nominee's withdrawal but also an investigation." In response, the nominee's side said, "Parents could not intervene in the decisions of an adult child. We had no knowledge of whether the eldest son filed a marriage registration," and added, "On weekdays, the eldest son lived in Sejong where he works, and the daughter-in-law lived at the newlywed home in Yongsan, and on weekends the couple stayed together at the nominee couple's home."