1084 Cases of False and Exaggerated Real Estate Advertisements Detected... Fines Imposed After Final Verification

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] #. Mr. A happened to find a listing for a property in the same building, with the same area (layout), and on the same floor as his own home while browsing a blog post on a portal site to check apartment prices. Within the complex, Mr. A's home was the only one meeting those conditions. Mr. A protested to the real estate agent responsible, but the agent claimed the listing was registered by mistake and promised to delete the post. Consequently, Mr. A reported the advertisement to the ‘Real Estate Advertising Market Monitoring Center.’

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 1st that it detected 1,084 suspected violation advertisements in the first quarter of this year through online monitoring of brokerage listings to reduce consumer damage caused by false, exaggerated, or unqualified real estate advertisements.

This investigation was conducted through basic monitoring of advertisements reported and received by the ‘Real Estate Advertising Market Monitoring Center’ (hereafter Monitoring Center) during the first quarter, along with ad hoc monitoring of selected advertisements on social network services (SNS).

According to the Ministry, the basic monitoring in the first quarter was conducted on 2,739 advertisements reported for reasons such as failure to disclose mandatory information, false or exaggerated advertisements, and unqualified advertiser ads. Excluding legitimate listings or ads where it was difficult to verify violations based on the reports, 779 advertisements were suspected of actual violations. Among the 779 regulation violations analyzed by the monitoring agency, the breakdown was 420 cases of failure to disclose mandatory information, 304 cases of prohibited unfair labeling or advertising, and 55 cases of advertiser violations.

Additionally, ad hoc monitoring was conducted throughout March on 350 advertisements on SNS platforms (100 each from YouTube, internet cafes, and blogs, and 50 from secondhand trading apps such as Danggeun Market), which may be relatively harder to manage. The investigation found 305 suspected violation advertisements. By type, there were 302 cases of failure to disclose mandatory information, 29 cases of prohibited unfair labeling or advertising, and 7 cases of advertiser violations, totaling 338 suspected violations*. Some advertisements had more than one violation, so the total number of suspected violations exceeded the number of suspected advertisements.

The Ministry plans to request local governments to take legal actions such as imposing fines after final verification of the total 1,084 suspected violation advertisements identified through both basic and ad hoc monitoring.

The number of reports received through the Monitoring Center during the basic monitoring averaged about 30 per day, showing a decreasing trend compared to the two monitoring rounds conducted last year. The Ministry also judged that the advertising regulations are stabilizing, with a steady decline in failure to disclose mandatory information related to accurate information display and a continuous improvement in understanding of the system.

On the other hand, when comparing the violation rate (ratio of suspected violations to total investigated ads) on SNS platforms such as YouTube, internet cafes (Naver, Daum), Naver Blog, Danggeun Market (advertising platform), Naver Real Estate, Dabang, Zigbang, Peterpan’s Good Room Search, and Real Estate 114 with major real estate advertising platforms, SNS showed a violation rate more than three times higher. Among the violations, failure to disclose mandatory information was the most frequent, indicating the need for continuous efforts to establish the system.

Han Jeong-hee, Director of the Real Estate Industry Division at the Ministry, said, "This monitoring is meaningful in that it focused on SNS, which can be relatively vulnerable to management," adding, "We will continue to strengthen management by conducting additional planned investigations in vulnerable areas such as SNS to foster a healthy and transparent online real estate market."

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