A pop-up image announcing the intensive reporting period for false real estate transaction price declarations. [Korea Real Estate Board's Real Estate Market Disturbance Reporting Center website]
A pop-up image announcing the intensive reporting period for false real estate transaction price declarations. [Korea Real Estate Board's Real Estate Market Disturbance Reporting Center website]

The Korea Real Estate Board announced Thursday that it has launched a roughly six-week "intensive reporting period for false transaction price declarations," running from Aug. 10 through Sept. 18, to root out fraudulent real estate price reporting and prevent market disruption.

The initiative aims to identify cases of false price reporting — including so-called "up-contracts" and "down-contracts" — review them promptly and forward them to the relevant local governments, thereby strengthening the effectiveness of detailed investigations by central and local authorities.

The reporting targets all false price declarations in real estate transactions as defined under Articles 3 and 4 of the Real Estate Transaction Reporting Act.

Key targets include "down-contracts," in which the reported price is lower than the actual transaction amount to evade taxes, and "up-contracts," in which the price is inflated to manipulate market prices or increase loan limits. Both the act of falsely reporting transaction prices and any conduct that encourages or facilitates such reporting are subject to the crackdown.

The Korea Real Estate Board operates the Real Estate Market Disturbance Reporting Center under a mandate from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. During the intensive reporting period, the board plans to swiftly review submitted cases, classify them by violation type, prepare review opinion documents and transfer them to the relevant local governments with requests for detailed investigation and administrative action.

The board will also analyze the breakdown of violation types — such as up-contracts and down-contracts — and track regional reporting trends, helping the government monitor illegal activity in real time.

When signs of serious irregularities are detected — such as large-scale tax evasion or organized market price manipulation — the board said it will immediately share the information with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to enable a timely response.

To encourage voluntary public reporting, the board has posted a guidance pop-up on the Reporting Center's website.

The board also plans to significantly expand its public outreach by distributing card-news content through its official SNS channels and registering pop-ups and banners on major operating websites.

Lee Heon-wook, president of the Korea Real Estate Board, said false real estate price reporting "is a serious illegal act that disrupts market order and harms innocent parties to transactions." He added that the board would "do its utmost to crack down on illegal conduct that disturbs transaction order and to build a stable residential environment and fair real estate transaction market that the public can trust."


hwshin@heraldcorp.com