"Cannot Accept Brokerage Fee Reduction"...Korea Association of Realtors Launches Nationwide Protest

Association President Begins Hunger Strike, Nationwide Protests
"Unilateral Reduction Without Genuine Consultation"
Online Forum on the 17th Afternoon... Concerns Over Industry Conflict

The Korea Association of Realtors has taken a stance of "unacceptable" and launched protests in response to the government's 'Brokerage Fee Reform Plan,' which aims to alleviate the burden of real estate sales and lease brokerage fees.

On the 16th, the Association stated, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's unilateral and insincere brokerage fee reform plan is unacceptable," and announced nationwide protests starting with the association president's hunger strike at the Blue House, National Assembly, and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Park Yong-hyun, president of the Korea Association of Realtors, emphasized, "We can never tolerate the unilateral reduction of brokerage fees without sincere consultation with the association, simply pushing a general policy of lowering brokerage fees." President Park plans to begin an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The association stated, "To respond to the public's demand for brokerage fee reform caused by the government's flawed real estate policies such as skyrocketing housing prices and tax burdens, we have sincerely participated in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's task force meetings for over seven months," and criticized, "The Ministry has consistently taken a unilateral and insincere stance by presenting regressive reform plans at each subsequent meeting, even on matters agreed upon in the seventh meeting."

The association also claimed, "Even the online debate scheduled for the 17th was communicated to the association's debate participants only the day before, making prior review difficult," and "The debate was pushed forward in a manner that defies common sense, such as not informing the public and realtors in advance about the event."

Earlier, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements announced that they would hold an online debate at 2 p.m. on the 17th to gather diverse opinions from the public, the association, academia, civic groups, and consumer organizations regarding the 'Improvement Plan for Real Estate Brokerage Fees and Brokerage Services.'

On the same day, the Ministry separately created and disclosed three proposals to reduce the burden of brokerage fees. In response to the significant increase in public burden due to rising real estate prices and the resulting increase in brokerage fees, the Ministry has been preparing improvement plans through research projects. If the government plan is finalized, brokerage fees for housing transactions in the 900 million to 1.2 billion KRW range are expected to be significantly reduced.

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