A slew of illegal ads that deceived consumers online by falsely portraying lifestyle accommodation facilities as if they were actual dwellings have been caught by government authorities.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on the 19th that, after intensively checking the status of online listings and ads for lifestyle accommodation facilities nationwide that had not been converted for residential use, such as officetels, 315 cases were detected.
The investigation, based on the Certified Broker Act, was carried out intensively for about seven weeks from Mar. 23 to May 8. The targets were 912 facilities nationwide that, as of the end of last year, had not registered for lodging business or had not changed their use to residential buildings. The task force scrutinized 1,180 ads posted on major real estate platforms such as Naver Pay Real Estate, ZIGBANG CO., and Dabang, as well as on blogs and cafes on social media (SNS).
As a result, 315 cases (26.7%), more than a quarter of all items analyzed, were suspected of violating the law and were caught. By region, Gyeonggi had the most with 155 cases, followed by Busan (47) and Incheon (25).
A closer look at the cracked-down cases shows they fall into two broad types. First, there were 162 unfair ad practices that misled demand by falsely registering lifestyle accommodation facilities as officetels, multi-family dwellings, or general "residential" buildings, or by advertising that "address registration is possible."
In addition, although buildings that are not general dwellings are legally required to clearly state the exact floor and location, 153 cases were also detected in which this was concealed and indicated only vaguely as "low-rise/mid-rise/high-rise," violating mandatory disclosure obligations. In actual cases, there were ads that disguised properties as dwellings even though they were clearly classified as lodging facilities in the building ledger, or skirted the rules by avoiding disclosure of the floor, making such tricks the norm.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) demanded the immediate deletion and correction of the 315 suspected illegal posts confirmed this time from each internet platform corporations. At the same time, it notified the relevant local governments overseeing the brokerage offices to ensure stern measures such as imposing fines.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) plans to continue monitoring illegal real estate ads at all times to root out market-disrupting behavior. Not only false listings but also collusion on apartment prices and price-distorting practices that roil the market will be closely monitored through the "Integrated Reporting Center for Illegal Real Estate Activities," with strict penalties imposed in cooperation with local governments.
Kim Gi-dae, Director of the real estate consumer protection planning team at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), said, "Lifestyle accommodation facilities can be used for residential purposes only if they undergo proper change-of-use procedures, so the building use and ad content must be checked before signing a contract," adding, "We will continue to inspect false and exaggerated ads so that the public can trade with confidence based on accurate information, and we will do our utmost to establish a sound and transparent order for real estate market transactions."