Foreign victims shut out of Korea's 'jeonse' fraud relief efforts

Published Sep 11, 2026 7:00 am KST

547 foreign nationals recognized as victims of housing scam

A view of residential neighborhood from the Lotte World Tower in Seoul, Aug. 13 / Yonhap

At the start of 2022, Nan Ming-ji, a 40-year-old with Chinese citizenship, moved with his parents into a home in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. The family put down a 140 million won ($104,000) deposit — money his parents had saved since arriving in Korea two decades ago.

It was no small sum. But under the country’s distinct “jeonse” system, such large upfront deposits have long been the norm. Instead of paying monthly rent, tenants put down a lump sum that is returned in full when the lease ends. For landlords, the deposits provide access to a large pool of capital they can invest or earn interest on.

In October 2023, Nan’s father found a notice saying their home was being put up for auction. Just weeks later, the family learned that their landlord owned several other buildings in his wife’s and brother-in-law’s names. Those properties, too, had been flagged for auction.

The family had fallen victim to a form of jeonse fraud that has spread rapidly across Korea over the past decade. Some landlords used deposits from multiple tenants to acquire properties with little of their own capital. But when the real estate market weakened and new deposits stopped flowing in, they found themselves unable to return deposits when leases expired, leaving renters facing the sudden loss of their hard-earned savings.

Nearly three years later, the family still lives in the home. A bank and later a credit union moved to auction the property, but Nan managed to file petitions that delayed the sales.

“And now, the claim has been transferred to a capital company,” he said. When the company initiated another auction this year, he applied for another postponement. This time, however, the Ansan court rejected his request.

“There have already been two auctions, but both failed to attract a buyer. The next one is expected to be held in September or October. If someone buys the house this time, we’ll have to leave.”

Both of his parents are over 60, and the three family members have struggled to find stable work.

“If we are forced out of this home, our lives will be ruined,” he said. “We’d have no choice but to go back to China after losing everything we’ve worked for.”

Nan’s experience is not an isolated one among foreign residents.

As of Aug. 31, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had officially recognized 40,936 people as victims under the Special Act on Support for Jeonse Fraud Victims and Housing Stability. Foreign nationals accounted for 547 cases, or 1.3 percent of the total.

The actual number is believed to be higher, however, as some victims have been unable to meet the law’s eligibility requirements.

The special act does not bar foreign residents from being recognized as victims, but even after receiving official recognition, they remain ineligible for some of the relief measures available to Korean citizens, including public rental housing and financial assistance backed by the Housing and Urban Fund.

In early August, the Gyeonggi Provincial Government proposed that the central government extend such assistance to international residents who are legally living in Korea.

More specifically, it called for allowing Korea Land & Housing Corp. (LH) to purchase foreclosed housing occupied by foreign victims and convert them into emergency housing, enabling those affected to remain in their homes.

The province also urged broader financial support, including access to low-interest jeonse loans and refinancing programs that would allow borrowers to replace existing housing loans with more affordable ones.

But Nan is skeptical that the provincial government’s proposal will lead to meaningful change.

“It may have symbolic significance, but I don’t think it will actually help,” he noted. “We’ve been knocking on the doors of the land ministry ourselves for about three years, asking for financial support, but they keep sending us elsewhere, saying the law has to be decided by the National Assembly.”

For him, the issue ultimately goes beyond whether a victim is Korean or foreign, or whether they qualify for government assistance. At its core, the problem is that too little is being done to recover the money victims have lost.

Over the past five years, the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corp. has paid out 15 trillion won on guarantee claims after landlords failed to return tenants’ deposits, but has recovered only about 20 percent of that amount. The growing backlog of unrecovered claims has been attributed in part to shortcomings in identifying debtors’ assets and actively pursuing collections.

“Most jeonse scam victims have losses running into hundreds of millions of won,” Nan said. “We’re not asking for welfare. We’re asking for justice to be served and for efforts to recover the money we lost. But so far, we haven’t seen much tangible action on that front.”

Human rights activists are taking the dispute to the administrative appeals process, arguing that foreign victims should also be eligible for their foreclosed homes to be purchased by LH if they have been affected by housing scams.

“The special act was created to support victims of a crisis caused by structural problems in Korea’s rental system. It is aimed at supporting those affected, meaning the state has an obligation to provide assistance regardless of nationality,” said Seo Dong-kyu of Min Snail Union, a housing rights advocacy group.

The government has stated that foreign nationals cannot benefit from the LH purchase program because it is financed through the Housing and Urban Fund, which is restricted to Korean nationals under the Housing and Urban Fund Act and the Special Act on Public Housing.

Seo, however, pointed to provisions in the special act on support for jeonse fraud victims that allow victims’ homes to be purchased not only with money from the fund but also with local government budgets.

“The law doesn’t rely solely on the Housing and Urban Fund. Local government funds can also be used, and there is no restriction on using them to support foreign nationals,” he said.

Gyeonggi Province calls for 'jeonse' fraud aid to cover foreign victims

Risky system, housing scams leave many young tenants financially ruined

发布于2026年9月11日 上午7:00（韩国标准时间）

547名外国公民被认定为住房诈骗案受害者

8月13日，从首尔乐天世界塔眺望居民区 / 韩联社

2022年初，40岁的中国公民南明基（音译）和父母一起搬进了位于京畿道安山市的一处住宅。他们一家支付了1.4亿韩元（约合10.4万美元）的首付——这笔钱是他的父母自20年前来到韩国以来一直积攒的。

这笔钱数额不小。但在韩国独特的“全租”制度下，这种大额预付押金早已司空见惯。租户无需按月支付租金，只需一次性支付一笔押金，租约到期时即可全额退还。对房东而言，这些押金让他们可以动用一大笔资金进行投资或赚取利息。

2023年10月，楠的父亲发现一张告示，说他们的房子即将被拍卖。仅仅几周后，他们一家人得知，房东名下还有几处房产，分别登记在他妻子和姐夫的名下。这些房产也都被列入了拍卖名单。

这家人不幸成为一种“全租”骗局的受害者，这种骗局在过去十年间迅速蔓延至韩国各地。一些房东利用多位租客的押金，以极少的自有资金购置房产。但当房地产市场疲软，新的押金流入枯竭时，租约到期后，他们却无力退还押金，导致租客们辛辛苦苦积攒的积蓄瞬间化为乌有。

将近三年过去了，这家人仍然住在那栋房子里。一家银行和后来的一家信用社都曾试图拍卖这处房产，但南设法提交了请愿书，推迟了拍卖进程。

“现在，这项债权已经转让给了资本公司，”他说。今年，当该公司再次启动拍卖时，他又一次申请延期。然而，这一次，安山法院驳回了他的请求。

“已经举行过两次拍卖，但都没人买。下一次拍卖预计将在九月或十月举行。如果这次有人买下了房子，我们就得搬走了。”

他的父母都已年过六旬，一家三口一直难以找到稳定的工作。

“如果我们被迫离开这个家，我们的生活就完了，”他说。“失去我们辛辛苦苦挣来的一切之后，我们将别无选择，只能回中国。”

楠的遭遇在外国居民中并非个例。

截至8月31日，国土交通部已根据《全世诈骗受害者支援及住房稳定特别法》正式确认40936人为受害者。其中，外国公民占547例，占总数的1.3%。

然而，实际数字可能更高，因为一些受害者未能满足法律规定的资格要求。

该特别法案并未禁止外国居民被认定为受害者，但即使获得官方认定，他们仍然没有资格享受韩国公民可享受的一些救济措施，包括公共租赁住房和由住房和城市基金支持的财政援助。

8月初，京畿道政府提议中央政府将此类援助扩大到合法居住在韩国的国际居民。

更具体地说，它呼吁允许韩国土地住宅公司（LH）购买被取消抵押品赎回权的、由外国受害者居住的房屋，并将其改造成紧急住房，使受影响的人能够留在自己的家中。

该省还敦促提供更广泛的财政支持，包括提供低息全额贷款和再融资计划，使借款人能够用更实惠的贷款替换现有的住房贷款。

但楠对省政府的提议能否带来实质性改变持怀疑态度。

“这或许具有象征意义，但我认为实际上不会有什么帮助，”他指出。“我们自己已经奔走于土地部三年，请求财政支持，但他们总是把我们推来推去，说这项法律必须由国民议会决定。”

对他而言，问题的本质并非在于受害者是韩国人还是外国人，也并非在于他们是否符合政府援助资格。问题的核心在于，政府在追回受害者损失的钱财方面做得远远不够。

过去五年，韩国住房城市担保公团已支付15万亿韩元担保金，用于赔偿房东未退还租户押金的损失，但仅收回了约20%。未收回的赔偿金积压日益严重，部分原因是未能有效识别债务人的资产并积极追讨欠款。

“大多数全网诈骗受害者损失高达数亿韩元，”楠女士说。“我们不是在寻求救济，我们只是要求伸张正义，并努力追回我们损失的钱财。但到目前为止，我们还没有看到这方面有什么实质性的行动。”

人权活动人士将这场争议提交行政上诉程序，他们认为，如果外国受害者受到住房诈骗的影响，他们也应该有资格让 LH 购买其被取消抵押赎回权的房屋。

“这项特别法案是为了帮助受韩国租赁制度结构性问题引发的危机影响的受害者而制定的。它旨在帮助受影响的人，这意味着国家有义务提供援助，无论其国籍如何，”住房权益倡导组织“闵蜗牛联盟”的徐东奎表示。

政府已声明，外国公民不能从 LH 购买计划中受益，因为该计划由住房和城市基金提供资金，而根据《住房和城市基金法》和《公共住房特别法》，该基金仅限于韩国公民。

然而，徐指出，在关于援助全租房诈骗受害者的特别法案中，有条款允许不仅用基金的钱，而且用地方政府的预算来购买受害者的房屋。

他说：“这项法律并非仅仅依赖于住房和城市基金。地方政府的资金也可以使用，而且没有限制用这些资金来支持外国公民。”

京畿道呼吁提供“全额”欺诈援助，以覆盖外国受害者。

风险重重的租房制度，房屋诈骗让许多年轻租户倾家荡产。