Over 3,500 exposed in special crackdown on real estate crimes: police

police-real estate crime

SEOUL, Nov. 10 (Yonhap) -- Police have found 3,565 people suspected of committing real estate-related crimes, with over 2,100 of them referred to the prosecution and 16 formally arrested, police officials said Tuesday.

Following its yearlong special crackdown on such crimes that began October 2025, the police referred 2,151 to prosecutors on various charges, including fixing or inflating home prices, and applying for and winning new apartment purchases through fraudulent means, according to the officials.

The special crackdown has been extended by one year to the end of October 2027, they said, amid continued government efforts to curb runaway housing prices.

Of those exposed in the crackdown, farmland speculation accounted for the largest share at 25.2 percent, or 898 people, followed by 795 people who allegedly used fraudulent means in apartment applications and 726 accused of illegal brokering, such as inflating home prices.

Police have frozen 14.79 billion won (US$11.02 million) in illegal profits even before formal indictments and notified relevant authorities about 616 people so that punitive administrative actions can be taken against them.

In a separate year-round crackdown on "jeonse" lease fraud, police referred 2,525 suspects to prosecutors since October 2025, 59 of whom have been arrested, according to the police.

Jeonse is a unique housing rental system in South Korea where tenants pay a large lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent, which is returned at the end of the lease. In recent years, widespread jeonse fraud, where the landlord fails or refuses to return the deposit, has emerged as a major social issue, leaving many renters, especially young ones, facing severe financial losses.

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