"Do You Know About Real Estate Gadu-ri?" ... Gyeongnam Province Intensifies Crackdown on Apartment Price Manipulation

Price Collusion by Women's Associations in New Town Apartments in the Province through Social Media Management

Notice on Real Estate Enclosures and Price Manipulation (Photo by Gyeongnam Province)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kang Sharon] Gyeongsangnam-do recently decided to take strong measures against real estate transaction disorder acts, such as apartment price manipulation rapidly spreading mainly among apartment women's associations in some areas, by conducting urgent joint inspections with the relevant cities and counties and referring the apartment women's associations suspected of violating the Licensed Real Estate Agents Act to the police for investigation.

The recent problematic price manipulation involves apartment women's associations creating internet KakaoTalk chat rooms to share prices and competitively listing properties at prices significantly higher than the market value. Real estate offices listing properties at market prices are struggling to explain this to sellers.

Apartment residents are disrupting real estate transaction order through collusion by ostracizing real estate offices that do not advertise at residents' requested prices within the apartment complex, calling such offices "Gaduri Real Estate" for refusing to list properties at prices higher than actual transaction prices.

Accordingly, the province plans to refer to the police for investigation those violating the Licensed Real Estate Agents Act by monitoring and guiding against price collusion, including posting false messages on social networking services (SNS) such as cafes or bands to deceptively manipulate prices as if apartments were traded at high prices in real time, installing banners at apartment entrances to induce price collusion, and posting related materials.

The Licensed Real Estate Agents Act was amended on August 21 to ▲prevent damage to the soundness of the real estate market caused by unfair representations and advertisements of brokerage objects, ▲protect consumers from false and exaggerated advertisements amid the increasing use of internet real estate brokerage, and ▲efficiently sanction acts that harm the sound transaction order of the real estate market, such as price collusion in real estate transactions.

Yoon In-guk, Director of the Urban Transportation Bureau of the province, said, “We will strongly respond by operating a joint crackdown team against acts disturbing real estate transaction order, such as rapidly spreading price manipulation and collusion in some apartments,” and added, “We will do our best to create a sound real estate market by prohibiting acts that harm transaction order, such as false and exaggerated advertisements of brokerage objects and price collusion.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.