“Would changing my address boost my score?”... 98% of fraudulent housing applications involve fake address registrations

[Financial News] At least 98% of fraudulent housing applications uncovered in 2024 involved fake address registrations. The methods used to fraudulently apply for housing appear to have become almost entirely concentrated on fake address registrations.
On the 7th, according to data submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to Kang Dae-sik, a People Power Party lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, a total of 499 fraudulent housing applications were uncovered in 2024. Of these, 491 involved fake address registrations, accounting for 98.4% of the total.
Over the past five years, fraudulent housing applications increased about 2.5-fold, from 197 in 2020 to 499 in 2024, while cases involving fake address registrations surged about 3.7-fold over the same period, from 134 to 491. In the first half of last year alone, 251 fraudulent applications were uncovered, 245 of which (97.6%) involved fake address registrations.
In addition, since 2020, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has referred a total of 1,866 suspected fraudulent housing application cases to police for investigation. Fake address registrations accounted for 1,514 of them, or 81.1%.
However, critics say the current investigative system has limitations. The ministry also said that while it can verify whether older people have falsely registered their address by checking records such as health insurance data, verification is difficult for younger people, and there has also been criticism of the effectiveness of on-site inspections.
Currently, eight inspection staff from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Real Estate Board, among others, investigate each housing development for one to two days to determine whether addresses have been falsely registered. The government plans to strengthen its verification system by increasing the number of inspectors from 8 to 15 and extending inspections at each development from one day to three to five days. The related budget will be sharply increased from 260 million won to 1.28 billion won.
In particular, to strengthen verification of adult children’s actual residence, the government will check their workplace locations and tighten their residency requirement in line with that for parents, from one year to three years. All jeonse and monthly rental agreements entered into by dependents, as well as homeownership, will also be used when verifying actual residence.
“For people who have spent a long time preparing to apply for a home of their own, fraudulent applications through fake address registrations are an obvious foul that robs them of an opportunity,” Kang Dae-sik said. “The government itself has acknowledged that it has difficulty verifying fake address registrations among young people. It must therefore strengthen checks on actual residence and on-site inspections to thoroughly stamp out fraudulent housing applications.”
[email protected] Jeon Min-gyeong Reporter