Illegal advertisements misrepresenting lodging facilities as residential properties have been identified over 100 times this year. Among the offenders, several have repeatedly received corrective actions, raising concerns about the effectiveness of current oversight measures.
On October 7, Rep. Bok Gi-wang of the Democratic Party, a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, revealed that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport reported a total of 108 cases this year where lodging facilities were advertised as residential properties without proper change of use.
Regionally, Busan had the highest number of cases at 44, followed by Gyeonggi with 30, Incheon with 9, Jeju with 8, Gangwon with 6, and both Seoul and Daegu with 4 each. Daejeon reported 3 cases.
Lodging facilities are not classified as residential properties and must undergo a change of use process to be utilized as such. However, the monitoring revealed instances where these facilities were advertised as 'single-family homes,' 'multi-family homes,' 'officetels,' or 'business facilities,' or were falsely labeled as 'available for residency' or 'residential' without the necessary changes.
Twelve repeat offenders were identified, with four in Gyeonggi receiving corrective actions three times. Three individuals in Busan and Gyeonggi received corrective actions twice, while one each in Seoul and Jeju did so.
Of the 108 corrective actions taken, 73 were supervisory measures, while 35 involved fines. No cases of business suspension, registration cancellation, criminal complaints, or referrals for investigation were reported.
Rep. Bok stated, "Illegal advertisements that mislead consumers into thinking that lodging facilities can be used as housing without proper change of use are continuously being detected. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport must implement effective measures to prevent recurrence."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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