The government recommended real-name verification for homeowners listing real estate properties through direct transaction platforms like Karrot. This is to prevent adverse effects such as unfair advertising or posting false listings disguised as direct transactions.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 13th that it has prepared operational guidelines for real estate direct transaction platforms along with regular monitoring to prevent consumer harm from false listings and ensure safe transactions.
According to the operational guidelines for real estate direct transaction platforms, platform operators must guide the relationship between advertisers posting property information and property owners, as well as mandatory information that must be recorded when listing properties. If the advertiser is not a right-holder such as a seller or lessor, procedures to verify the relationship with the owner must be established. A self-reporting system must be built for false listings and posts under false identities, along with measures for voluntary correction.
In accordance with government guidelines, Karrot will transition from a verification method that only checks mobile phone ownership via text to a real-name verification method linked with carrier subscription information starting this year. It has fully implemented real-name verification for real estate property listings.
Karrot provides a 'homeowner verification' mark if the properties registered by members with completed real-name verification match the advertiser and the owner listed on the property registration. Additionally, it plans to enhance its monitoring techniques for unfair advertising and improve the platform environment to autonomously prevent false listings.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport established these operational guidelines for real estate direct transaction platforms because there has been a rise in transactions using platforms like Karrot. This has raised concerns about the need for systematic management of transactions between individuals.
The Ministry focused on monitoring advertisements disguised as real estate brokerage objects on online direct transaction platforms like Karrot, Bokdeokbang, Bungeejangteo, and Junggonara during the months of November to December last year. As a result, 104 out of a total of 500 advertisements were found to violate the Licensed Real Estate Agent Act, with 94 cases (90.4%) involving violations by advertisers and 10 cases (9.6%) involving violations of mandatory disclosure.
However, the fact that the government's real-name verification for real estate direct transaction platforms remains a recommendation is expected to limit efforts to eradicate unfair advertisements and false listings. Other real estate direct transaction platforms besides Karrot have not yet implemented real-name verification systems.
Kim Gyu-cheol, Deputy Minister of Housing and Land, said, "I expect that the operational guidelines for real estate direct transaction platforms will contribute to preventing consumer harm during the transaction process," and noted, "The Ministry will continuously check the compliance with the guidelines distributed and plans to take strict actions in cooperation with the Korean National Police Agency and local governments against acts that advertise false listings for fraudulent purposes." He added, "I urge consumers to check for 'homeowner verification' during real estate transactions to avoid any harm during the process."