Police said on Oct. 19 that from Oct. 17 to Mar. 15 next year, they will carry out a 150-day nationwide special crackdown on real estate crimes. It is part of follow-up measures to the Oct. 15 measures to stabilize the dwellings market.
The National Office of Investigation of the Korean National Police Agency organized a dedicated investigative team of 841 people for this special crackdown, with the director of investigations serving as the head of the Special Investigation Headquarters for Real Estate Crimes. The plan is to preemptively block illegal acts such as the spreading "price pumping" that abuses recent expectations of rising home prices.
The eight key targets of the crackdown are: ▲ illegal brokerage activities such as price pumping of home prices ▲ fraudulent subscription applications ▲ speculation using inside information ▲ corruption in reconstruction and redevelopment ▲ planned real estate schemes ▲ illegal speculation in farmland ▲ title trusts ▲ and jeonse fraud. Among these, jeonse fraud has been under an indefinite crackdown since July 2022.
It said that for assets acquired with criminal proceeds, authorities plan to pursue recovery centered on the city and provincial Korean National Police Agency criminal revenue tracing investigation teams.
They also plan to carry out region-specific crackdowns by using the intelligence and analysis networks of 261 police agencies. Priority investigation areas are price collusion, price pumping of home prices, and reconstruction and redevelopment in Seoul and the greater metropolitan area, and planned real estate schemes and farmland speculation in small and midsize provincial cities.
They also plan to institutionalize a system for joint investigations and investigative cooperation with the Real Estate Consumer Protection Task Force of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the pan-government investigation and investigative body to be established in the future.
Park Seong-ju, head of the National Office of Investigation at the Korean National Police Agency, said, "Through this crackdown, we will fundamentally block real estate crimes that harm the public, such as illegal transactions and price manipulation," and added, "If you discover illegal brokerage or price manipulation, do not hesitate to report it."