On the 20th, the local community service Carrot announced it will introduce a mandatory verification system for personal transactions registered on its real estate service, 'Carrot Real Estate.'
Accordingly, in the future, individuals registering listings on Carrot Real Estate will need to go through identity verification along with the verification process for either the homeowner or the tenant.
When the property owner registers directly, it will be marked as a 'homeowner verified listing' after being matched with the property registration document. When a tenant uploads a listing, they must either obtain homeowner verification or submit a lease agreement. The homeowner verification process occurs when the tenant inputs the homeowner's phone number, and a confirmation notification is sent via KakaoTalk. The homeowner verification was started in January 2023, and tenant verification is being introduced now.
This system was implemented to comply with the real estate direct transaction platform operational guidelines announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in February. The guidelines were established to prevent consumer damage caused by illegal real estate advertisements, which have been problematic on platforms like Carrot, where unauthorized brokers of properties, such as charter agencies, were displayed as 'homeowners.'
In July, it was revealed that a real estate scam group that had posted false property listings on Carrot and embezzled deposit money was apprehended by the police, highlighting the risks associated with unverified direct transactions.
The mandatory verification system will be officially implemented in September after a period of guidance. Hwang Do-yeon, CEO of Carrot, noted, 'To transform Carrot Real Estate into a more trustworthy platform, we have introduced an active and robust user protection system in the form of mandatory verification for direct transaction listings.' He added, 'We will do our utmost to create a safe transaction environment by combining the enhanced verification system with current safety measures.'