지역주택조합, 무너진 서민의 꿈 [풀영상] | 시사기획 창 255회 (2019.10.19)

"Regional housing cooperatives," a system designed to allow low-income households without a subscription account to purchase apartments, are sparking conflict across the country. While the benefits of these cooperatives, formed by members, being the direct developers themselves, allow them to reduce developer profits and land financing costs, offering lower prices than market prices, the reality is different. A regional housing cooperative in Ulju County, Ulsan, was undergoing dissolution proceedings. Despite purchasing all the land, the project fell through due to a failure to pass the building permit. The project site itself was deemed unsuitable for a regional housing cooperative. It turned out that the cooperative president and the representative of the construction agency were pursuing two other regional housing cooperatives a kilometer away. Members, each suffering losses of 30 million won, believe they have been defrauded, but the police are reluctant to investigate, citing the difficulty of proving the fraud. Even after apartment construction begins, conflict persists over additional contributions. It's not uncommon for residents to pay tens of millions of won more in additional contributions than the initially advertised price. A local housing cooperative in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, has been embroiled in controversy after its chairman, along with a representative from an agency, placed a contract worth over 10 billion won with a company involving family members and relatives. Despite two replacements, the cooperative faces a projected shortfall of 16 billion won. The local housing cooperative reassured its members that it was entrusting its funds to a trust company, but this is not the case. The fund management agency contract does not require the trust company to verify the specific feasibility of fund execution. Depending on the size of the cooperative, the trust company receives anywhere from hundreds of millions to billions of won. However, the trust company maintains that it only disburses the funds upon the cooperative's submission of the required documentation, and that it is not its responsibility to verify the validity of the funds. During our reporting, we also uncovered problems in some cooperatives where the construction company in charge of the project intervened in the cooperative's affairs. This year alone, two executives of Seohee Construction, which operates 97 regional housing cooperatives nationwide, were caught recommending a financial advisor to a Daegu regional housing cooperative they were responsible for and receiving 600 million won in return from the advisor. On the 17th, they were sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years. Many regional housing cooperatives experience problems from the outset, as the cooperative president (chairperson of the promotion committee), business agents, and various contractors are entangled in personal interests. However, the institutional framework to check and balance the abuse of power and embezzlement by the cooperative president and business agents is weak, and the current structure of regional housing cooperatives makes it difficult for cooperative members to participate in business operations. According to an analysis of regional housing cooperative data obtained through a public information disclosure request from local governments nationwide by KBS, only 170 (24.6%) of the 690 regional housing cooperatives (including promotion committees) have built apartments. Among the approved local housing cooperatives, 92 have failed to complete land purchases and have not yet received approval for their projects after two years. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport praised the 2016 and 2017 legal revisions for enhancing transparency and announced plans to strengthen local government oversight of local housing cooperatives. However, while the law governing reconstruction and redevelopment (the Urban and Residential Environment Improvement Act), which homeowners often promote, has been supplemented over time to 142 articles, the Housing Act still contains only about ten articles on local housing cooperatives, a system designed to support low-income individuals without homes. KBS's [Current Affairs Planning Window] examined the cases of local housing cooperatives across the country to uncover the flaws in the current system and the damage suffered by low-income individuals who have lost their dream of owning a home. October 19, 2019 KBS1TV Broadcast [Current Affairs Planning Window - Local Housing Cooperatives, the Shattered Dreams of the Common People] Reporter: Son Won-hyeok #LocalHousingCooperatives #RealEstate #HomeOwnership #LandHousing #CurrentAffairs #KBSCurrentAffairs 'Current Affairs Planning Window' website: https://bit.ly/39AXCbF YouTube: http://bitly.kr/F41RXCerZip Facebook:   / changkbs   Search 'Current Affairs Planning Window' on WAVVE