KT Estate Launches Blockchain-Based Electronic Lease Contract Service

Non-face-to-face Contracts Possible Regardless of Distance

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Real estate specialist company KT Estate announced on the 13th that it has established the country's first blockchain-based electronic contract service for office and commercial lease agreements.

The blockchain-based electronic contract service allows real-time lease agreements for building offices and commercial spaces through tenant authentication using a public certificate or mobile phone identity verification.

The traditional method of building lease agreements was conducted face-to-face, causing significant inconvenience due to travel time for landlords and tenants and the need for physical stamping during contract signing. Additionally, unnecessary paper contract documents had to be stored, requiring extra management tasks.

By using KT Estate's electronic lease contract service, non-face-to-face contract signing is possible regardless of distance. Furthermore, the signed contracts are encrypted and automatically stored, possessing the same legal effect as traditional face-to-face contracts.

This is because blockchain technology is applied from contract signing to electronic contract storage using the KT Document-DX paperless platform authorized by the Ministry of Science and ICT. This technology manages the entire lifecycle of electronic documents, including creation, verification, and disposal, and can technically prove authenticity and detect forgery or alteration.

The Ministry of Science and ICT amended the "Framework Act on Electronic Documents and Electronic Transactions" in December 2020 to grant legal effect when electronic contract documents are stored in an authorized electronic document center. Since the amendment of the related law, KT Estate has been preparing to establish a digital building lease electronic contract service. With the system ready this year, the electronic contract service has been launched for approximately 4,900 office and commercial lease contracts across 430 buildings nationwide, where lease contract management is performed.

Seo Dae-seok, head of KT Estate's asset management business, stated, “Recently, many companies are pursuing non-face-to-face work processes, and we expect the demand for non-face-to-face electronic lease contract services to continue increasing.”

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