President Lee Jae-myung on the 24th again emphasized his commitment to eradicating real estate crimes and released a document containing the results of a special crackdown and follow-up plans.
On X (formerly Twitter) that day, the president said, "Vicious real estate crimes that ruin the country, we will root them out," adding, "Without normalizing the ruinous 'real estate republic,' there is no future for the Republic of Korea." He attached a document titled "Results of the government's first special crackdown on real estate and plan for the second special crackdown."
According to the document the president released, the government, led by the Office for Government Policy Coordination, formed and operated a council to respond to illegal real estate activities and conducted the first special crackdown for five months from Oct. 17 last year to March 15 this year. As a result, a total of 1,493 people were cracked down on; of these, 640 were referred to prosecutors and 7 were arrested.
By type, disruption of supply order (448 people, 77 referred, 3 arrested) was the most common, followed by farmland speculation (293 people, 249 referred), illegal brokerage such as pumping up home prices (254 people, 120 referred), title trust and unregistered resale (218 people, 107 referred), corruption in reconstruction and redevelopment (199 people, 76 referred, 2 arrested), and land-scheme real estate (74 people, 11 referred, 2 arrested). By status, licensed real estate agents in charge of real estate transaction brokerage numbered 132, accounting for a relatively high share, and 43 public officials and others were also included.
The document Lee attached also includes the plan for the second special crackdown. The second crackdown will run for seven months from March 16 to Oct. 31, with the targets the same as in the first. However, the plan is to focus investigative resources on types such as price-fixing to raise home prices and farmland speculation, which have recently drawn greater public controversy.