Blocking Disruptions to Transaction Order
Such as False Listings and Price Collusion
#Recently, a licensed real estate agent A registered an apartment located in Seoul as an advertised listing on an internet portal. After the contract was signed, the advertisement was deleted. Agent A repeated the deletion and registration of the listing a total of 7 times. The Seoul Metropolitan Government found that Agent A engaged in deceptive advertising by indicating that a large number of listings were secured to attract consumers, and identified this as a violation of the Licensed Real Estate Agent Act.
On the 19th, the city announced that it will conduct joint inspections with 25 autonomous districts to prevent jeonse fraud and disturbances in transaction order.
This inspection targets real estate agencies near newly built villas with high jeonse price ratios, which are areas of concern for "empty jeonse" (Kkangtong Jeonse), and large apartment complexes about to be occupied.
First, in the case of newly built villas, if the jeonse deposit ratio compared to the housing sale price is high, tenants may face high jeonse costs and risk not getting their deposits back. Additionally, large apartment complexes about to be occupied are considered likely to experience illegal brokerage activities such as false listings and price collusion during the transaction of a large volume of lease contracts.
Furthermore, the city plans to intensively crack down on illegal activities disrupting transaction order, focusing on areas where land transaction permit zones were lifted on the 13th.
The main inspection items include ▲unqualified, unregistered, and illegal brokerage ▲false listings and price collusion ▲violations of internet listing display and advertisement ▲violations in contract and brokerage object confirmation and explanation document preparation ▲excessive brokerage fees, among others.
Previously, as a result of guidance and crackdowns conducted last year with 25 autonomous districts, the city detected a total of 3,576 illegal real estate activities. Subsequently, 17 cases resulted in license cancellations and suspensions, 65 and 136 cases led to registration cancellations and business suspensions respectively. For 2,041 cases, fines totaling about 1.8 billion KRW were imposed, and 92 cases were prosecuted.
Jo Nam-jun, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Urban Space Headquarters, stated, "We will continue to promote guidance and inspections to establish a transparent and safe real estate transaction culture and protect citizens’ property rights.”
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