Checked October 6, 2026 (KST). Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT; 국토교통부) explained on October 5 why two numbers in coverage of irregular housing-subscription applications (부정청약) do not describe the same outcome. The ministry says 1,669 winning applications were detected and referred for police investigation, 665 of those were forwarded by police to prosecutors, and 273 contracts in the forwarded group had been cancelled. These are different steps and a snapshot, not a finding that every referral was guilty or that the rest can never be cancelled. This guide reads the ministry's original PDF as a status map, then separates current residency requirements from a planned amendment.
Stage 1: detection and police disposition
The ministry's time window is 2021 to June 2025. It reports 1,669 suspected irregular winning applications, including false residence registration, referred to the police. It says 665 were forwarded to prosecutors, 734 were not forwarded, and 270 were still under investigation. These are the police-status portions of the original reported total; do not add the 665 to the 1,669. The PDF does not establish that all 734 non-forwarded cases had the same reason or can be equated with a final judgment of innocence.
A news headline quoted in the ministry's PDF refers to 1,699, whereas the ministry's own accounting in its explanatory text says 1,669 for the stated period. We use the ministry's number here; the PDF does not reconcile the headline discrepancy.
Stage 2: the 665 forwarded cases are not all cancellations
At the time of the ministry's explanation, its allocation of the 665 cases sent to prosecutors was:
- 43 treated as no charges by prosecutors;
- 294 involved in trial or litigation;
- 273 with contract cancellation completed;
- 55 in which a sale to a third party made cancellation difficult.
The agency describes resale before the investigative result is notified in non-regulated areas with no resale restriction or a short one as an example of the last group. It does not claim that every resale is forever immune to cancellation. These are reported case statuses, not a simple timeline in which every file passes through each box. In particular 273 divided by 665 is not a final cancellation rate: litigation and investigations can change status. A referral itself is not a conviction or an automatic forfeiture of the buyer's deposit.
Court-confirmed misconduct versus an amendment still in progress
For housing-subscription misconduct ultimately confirmed by a court, the ministry describes up to three years' imprisonment or a KRW 30 million fine, contract cancellation and recovery of the home, a forfeited contract deposit handled by the project operator, and a ten-year restriction on applying. For cases where third-party resale makes cancellation difficult, it also cites a possible fine of up to three times the resale gain alongside criminal sanctions. Those are the ministry's descriptions of potential remedies, not evidence that each person in the 1,669 has received every sanction.
The PDF also describes current household-registration requirements as at least three years for a parent and at least one year for a child aged 30 or older. It says the ministry is pursuing a housing-supply-rule change to increase the latter requirement from one to three years and to require an adult child's National Health Insurance qualification-history certificate (건강보험 자격득실확인서). Implementation was planned for the fourth quarter of 2026. A policy plan is not yet an effective rule on the date checked; the final regulation, effective date and applicability to a specific application require fresh official verification.
What to check before applying—or interpreting a dispute
- The actual recruitment notice (입주자모집공고): identify its application date, household and residence criteria. Do not apply an announced future rule as though it were in force.
- Your records: compare residence registration and documents required by that notice with what you will submit. The proposed health-insurance history document is not automatically a mandatory document for every currently open application.
- If an existing contract is disputed: establish from official notices whether the case is at detection, police investigation, prosecution, litigation or cancellation. This article cannot determine any particular person's culpability or contract rights.
Korean short-answer guide on Naver: review the case stages.
About the Author
Life Mokcha's editorial team distinguished the ministry's investigation, litigation and cancellation statuses in the original PDF. The current recruitment notice and any later official rule or individual notice take precedence for a specific application.
