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It has been a year since a massive rental fraud case occurred in South Korea, with hundreds or thousands of houses being scammed. The number of victims has reached 7,590, and the most shocking thing is the involvement of real estate agents. Currently, the police are investigating more than 100 licensed real estate agents for suspected rental fraud, but the illegal activities of real estate agents are still rampant because, unlike lawyers, real estate agents will not be sanctioned until they are proven guilty.
The Korea Real Estate Agency Association revealed on Wednesday that since the rental scam scandal began to spread in October 2022, there have been 452 violations by licensed real estate agents as of November 2023. The figure was calculated by just three staff members of the association who collected complaints from local governments across the country. Many of the cases involved unregistered assistant brokers directly promoting properties or unqualified individuals conducting real estate transactions.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is preparing to announce measures to improve the real estate agent certification system by the end of the year, and the measures are expected to cause controversy as it has been confirmed that they are insufficient compared to the serious cases of rent fraud. An industry insider involved in the discussion of the measures said, “The focus will be on changing the training system.” Instead of strengthening compensation or penalties, they expect the focus to be on “strengthening moral education,” such as increasing the number of practical training hours that licensed real estate agents receive before opening their businesses. This response is considered insufficient, considering that 414 of the 2,188 suspects indicted for rent fraud in April, or 18.9%, were licensed real estate agents.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice, the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced on Wednesday that they will continue to jointly combat rental fraud, but did not set a specific deadline to eliminate the phenomenon. The nationwide special crackdown on rental fraud, which began in July 2022, was originally scheduled to end by the end of this year.
Written by Yeon Kyu-wook, Choi Ye-bin, and Yoon Yeon-hae
(ⓒ Pulse provided by Maeil Business News Korea and mk.co.kr, all rights reserved)
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