681 Cases of False and Exaggerated Real Estate Ads Detected, Luring Visits with 'Fishing Listings'

411 Cases of Mandatory Disclosure Violations, 248 Cases of Unfair Labeling and Advertising
Final Verification by Local Governments Leads to Fines and Other Measures

(Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Mun Je-won] Mr. A, who was looking into apartment sales, discovered a house he liked while searching online listings on YouTube. Mr. A called the real estate agency that posted the advertisement to obtain specific information such as the apartment’s floor, direction, number of parking spaces, and maintenance fees, but was told that the details could not be confirmed unless he visited in person. Mr. A realized that this listing was a so-called 'bait listing' designed to lure people into visiting the agency office.

The government detected a total of 681 violations through monitoring of false and exaggerated online real estate advertisements. Cases confirmed to have violated laws, like the one above, will undergo final verification by the relevant local governments and will be subject to measures such as fines.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 25th the results of its ongoing monitoring of online real estate listings to reduce consumer damage caused by false and exaggerated real estate advertisements.

This monitoring was the second conducted since the revised Real Estate Agent Act, which prohibits false and exaggerated online real estate advertisements, came into effect on August 20 last year. The monitoring period was from October 21 to December 31 of last year.

As with the first monitoring conducted during the two months immediately following the enactment of the revised Real Estate Agent Act, the Korea Internet Advertising Foundation, which specializes in advertisement monitoring, was commissioned by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to carry out the monitoring.

The foundation investigated 2,257 reports received through the 'Real Estate Advertising Market Monitoring Center' for violations such as failure to disclose mandatory information, false or exaggerated advertisements, and unqualified advertisements, confirming 681 cases suspected of actual violations.

Among the 681 violations, 411 were failures to disclose mandatory information, 248 were violations of the prohibition on unfair labeling and advertising, and 22 were violations related to the advertising entity. After final verification by local governments, measures such as fines will be requested for legal violations.

The number of reports received through the monitoring center averaged about 32 per day, a 36% decrease compared to the previous monitoring period’s daily average of about 50. Additionally, failures to disclose mandatory information significantly decreased from 79.1% to 60.4% compared to the previous monitoring results, indicating that labeling and advertising regulations are becoming established.

Han Jeong-hee, Director of the Real Estate Industry Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "Since the enactment of the Real Estate Agent Act prohibiting false listings and related advertisements, we have been striving to ensure the system’s effectiveness in the field through continuous education and publicity," adding, "this year, we will also expand monitoring to SNS platforms, which may be relatively harder to manage."

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