″The variety of house owners of a 550 Pyeong alley has risen to 130″
This report obtained three months in the past represented the start of our investigation.
The alley in query is a avenue in Okcheon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. The overall space of this avenue, which connects the middle of this neighborhood and the alleys, is about 1,800 m2 (about 550 pyeong), and after I took a replica of the register, I discovered that there have been 130 landowners.
The land has been owned by one particular person for 22 years, and on August 10 final 12 months, 10 actual property firms bought this street for about 3 million gained for 3.3㎡. And inside three months, the land was divided into small items and bought to 130 individuals for 12 million gained for 3.3㎡.
In three months, enterprise quadrupled.
The 130 individuals who purchased the street invested a mean of 30 to 40 million gained every, and divided the land into plots of about 10 sq. meters every.
What’s the cause why 130 individuals purchased this land at such a excessive value and on the identical time, the place they can’t train possession and can’t obtain occupancy rights (the fitting to turn into members of a redevelopment affiliation) even when is the realm being redeveloped attributable to their small share?
There have been no clues apart from the truth that this land was inside the web site of “Moa City,” a small-scale redevelopment venture in Seoul.
■ “Inconsistent” transactions that even actual property brokers conversant in the neighborhood scenario are unaware of.
As a result of this transaction was a direct transaction between an actual property firm and a person and not using a licensed actual property agent, even native actual property brokers who had been conversant in village information didn’t know the small print of the transaction. I simply suspected that it was the so-called “work” of an property planning company.
Moreover, many of the addresses of the ten actual property firms listed within the registry had been situated within the suburbs of Gyeonggi Province, and once we visited them, we discovered that they had been shared workplace customers. There isn’t any signal and never even a standard workplace.
In the long run, the one option to discover out the “cause for investing” was to ask particular person buyers instantly.
Based on the register there are 130 buyers. The addresses had been unfold throughout the nation and there have been additionally international nationalities.
As a reporter at Seoul Metropolis Corridor, I expanded my attain round Metropolis Corridor and went to satisfy particular person buyers one after the other. Nonetheless, since a number of buyers had invested within the names of their kids and fogeys, it was frequent to listen to the response “I do not know” even after I visited every home, and there have been even circumstances the place even after I met them, they informed me they rotated and denied the actual fact of getting invested.
The suspicion that there was one thing behind the deal has changed into certainty.
In 4 days we visited round 50 households and, happily, interviewed 4 individuals.
Though the true property firms from which they bought the land had been totally different, the “candy whispers” they heard once they had been launched to this land had been related.
“It is going to be redeveloped as a specific space of Moa City. If you happen to make investments a small quantity, it should enhance 2 to three occasions.
The actual property firm purchased the road solely on the publicly introduced value and bought it to 130 individuals at 4 occasions that value. Because of this for buyers to see thrice extra revenue, the road should be raised to 12 occasions the publicly introduced value.
It’s the “golden street”.
It is potential? There isn’t any want to hunt knowledgeable recommendation, however one appraiser who’s conversant in property planning strategies mentioned, “I am glad I simply saved the capital.”
■ Why promote the “golden street” that may enhance 12 occasions?
So, how a lot land like this do actual property firms personal?
I obtained contact info from buyers and referred to as to ask, and so they mentioned that they had already bought all the nice land.
I additionally requested particular person buyers why they had been assured that the value would “rise 3 occasions,” however they denied ever making such a promotion and protested, “When shares fall, nobody is held accountable, so why do it? with actual property?”
Moa City, a small-scale redevelopment venture, is Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s precedence venture to supply a ample provide of latest flats in Seoul.
However what does town of Seoul do whereas actual property firms speculate in Moatown?
Till MBC submitted an investigation into the matter to the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities final March, the standing was not even recognized.
MBC on March 20. It was reported through Information Desk.
Subsequently, the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities mentioned, “We intend to launch a large-scale investigation quickly,” and introduced measures to “block hypothesis in Moatown” the day after the report.
■ Feeling uncomfortable reasonably than relieved, growth of protection
The investigation started with solely a replica of the register in hand. It was not straightforward to go to every home for 4 days and clarify to buyers the explanation and goal of the protection. Earlier than the interview, I needed to reply their questions with the content material I had coated, however more often than not I used to be met with sighs like “Oh my God” and, in excessive circumstances, I needed to hearken to swear phrases.
Normally, after finishing the sort of subject report, I really feel a way of aid and aid. However this time my coronary heart was heavy, as if I hadn’t completed my homework but.
It’s because I used to be assured that this sort of “reckless hypothesis” was not only a downside in Seodaemun-gu.
The goal websites of Moa City introduced by the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities from January 2022 to January this 12 months are a complete of 85 areas in 25 autonomous districts. The place we talked about earlier was simply considered one of these 85 locations.
Would not there be issues in different areas of Moatown?
Then I extracted the info.
We extracted all land transactions in Seoul in 2020 and 2021, and solely summarized “avenue property transactions,” and the entire variety of transactions was 2,827. Nonetheless, in 2022 and 2023, when the Moa City venture started, transactions almost doubled to five,048.
Particularly, in Seongdong-gu, there have been solely 96 avenue inventory transactions in 2020 and 2021, however the quantity elevated 6.8 occasions to 655 in 2022 and 2023, and in Gangseo-gu, an space dense with ville, jumped 8.3 occasions from 57-478 in the identical interval.
Is it a coincidence? It wasn’t.
However I could not begin reporting shortly. As a result of it was so huge I could not even give it some thought.
■ Moatown’s final ‘divided lane’… 8 extra autonomous districts found
If you happen to seek for actual property transactions by Seoul Autonomous District within the Precise Transaction Worth Inquiry System of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, knowledge on the date the “cut up transaction (inventory transaction) occurred” is displayed. “, the transaction space, the acquisition value, and so forth. offered, however the batch quantity will not be disclosed. For instance, the home variety of a avenue that’s assumed to be a “cut up transaction” seems solely as .
To determine whether or not the road in query was a part of a subdivided transaction after the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities’s Moa City venture, we first wanted to know the road’s handle, and even that wasn’t straightforward.
Finally, that is how I got here up with it.
① By means of the precise transaction value knowledge, among the many streets traded at related occasions, classify these with the identical value and the identical space, after which calculate the sum of the areas.
② Log in to the true property web site. Zoom in on the road and click on on every lot, evaluating it to the realm present in step ① to search out a variety of the identical measurement.
③ After confirming the package deal handle, verify whether or not it was a cut up transaction through a replica of the register. (Since there are lots of parcels of comparable measurement, this course of is repeated a number of occasions)
④ As soon as the cut up transaction is confirmed, contact the district workplace to lastly verify whether or not the Moa City firm web site exists.
I may solely verify one package deal by means of these 4 steps, nevertheless it was formidable to verify a self-contained district and a 12 months in at some point.
So after I felt assured within the protection, I requested the staff chief and fashioned a activity power with two fellow journalists. After a couple of month and ten days of reporting, reporters coated not solely Seodaemun-gu, but additionally Jungnang-gu. Jongno-gu, Gwanak-gu, Dongjak-gu, Gangseo-gu and Dobong-gu A complete of eight autonomous districts, together with Geumcheon-gu, have confirmed additional alley share division transactions.
■ Possibly the neighborhood close to Moatown?
There’s one other downside.
This kind of “reckless hypothesis” can be spreading in areas close to Moatown. That is as a result of expectation that “it might quickly turn into Moa City”, and this expectation is nice prey for deliberate actual property firms.
Actual property planning firms purchased a 4,000㎡ alley in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul for two.9 billion gained two years in the past and bought it to 263 individuals in two months for 9.6 billion gained, greater than thrice the value.
2,440㎡ from an alley in Songjeong-dong, Seongdong-gu, was equally bought to 160 individuals at nearly double the value.
On account of journalists’ evaluation of land transaction knowledge in Seoul in 2022 and 2023, the entire space of laneways the place laneway transactions came about within the space round Moatown is 13,453㎡, and the variety of buyers is 959.
In response, the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities introduced its coverage that if the inflow of speculative forces, resembling anomalous actual property transactions, is suspected, it could possibly be excluded from the general public providing of Moa City on the discretion of the district mayor.
He additionally confused that he intends to react actively, together with by submitting complaints, towards actual property firms that intend to purchase streets at low costs after which revenue by encouraging hypothesis.
Nonetheless, the property planning companies coated by MBC “didn’t violate any legal guidelines. I do not know what the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities will examine, however whereas we’re within the place of “let’s strive,” we are going to report again after explaining how the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities investigates and what response measures it prepares.
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