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SEOUL: For a decade, Park Hyun-soo lived in a tiny windowless apartment in Seoul, working double shifts and scrimping to save every penny for a down payment on a fancy house. Then real estate scammers took his money.
South Korea’s housing rental market has a unique system called “jeanpo,” whereby tenants pay huge deposits — sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars — and live rent-free for years, then get all their money back when they move out.
The idea is that landlords get interest-free cash to speculate, and tenants get homes for free, using their properties as collateral. But now the system is rife with fraud — more than $1 billion is lost to dole scams each year, according to police data.
The system, which accounted for two-thirds of the rental market in the 1990s, has fallen out of favor, partly due to growing awareness of its risks.
Park told AFP he often worked from 9am to midnight doing menial delivery-related jobs to save up $73,000. But after he paid his deposit and moved in, his so-called landlord (who, it turned out, never had the authority to rent the property) disappeared, and Park was evicted without being able to get his money back.
He told AFP it wasn’t just cash that was stolen but “my entire 20s and early 30s”, and while legal action is ongoing it is highly unlikely he will receive compensation.
“My dream of owning a house has been shattered, and I’ve given up on dating, let alone getting married or having children,” said Park, 37, who uses a pseudonym in the promotional campaign to protect his privacy.
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