Suspected fake real estate ads on Instagram surpass all of last year in just 7 months

Suspected false and exaggerated real estate advertisements on Instagram — a social media platform heavily used by people in their 20s and 30s — have surged over the past year. As demand among young people for homeownership has grown this year, experts warn that bait-style listings using below-market prices or staged videos are proliferating on the platform.

According to data submitted to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jong-yang of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the number of suspected Instagram violations reached 250 in the first seven months of this year. That is roughly 1.7 times the total for all of last year, which stood at 143 cases.

The number of suspected false or exaggerated real estate ads on Instagram has climbed steeply from just 14 cases in 2021, rising to 36 in 2022, 98 in 2023 and 186 in 2024. After staying in the triple digits through last year, the count surpassed 200 in just the first seven months of this year.

The shift is widely attributed to tighter crackdowns and monitoring of fake listings on major real estate platforms, which appear to have pushed bait-style marketing toward Instagram, where short-form video content — known as Reels — feeds directly into users' algorithmic timelines and targeted advertising is easy to deploy.

Among major social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook were the only ones where suspected violations in the first seven months of this year already exceeded their full-year totals for last year. Facebook recorded 28 suspected cases from January through July, surpassing its full-year figure of 20 for last year. YouTube logged 158 cases, about 37 percent of its full-year total of 425 for 2025. Naver Cafe also saw a sharp decline, with 151 cases compared with 971 last year.

Established real estate listing platforms have seen suspected violations fall as monitoring systems have tightened. Zigbang went from 1,088 cases in 2023 to 857 in 2024, 463 in 2025 and 195 in the first seven months of this year. Dabang followed a similar trajectory, dropping from 1,792 to 770, 491 and 161 over the same periods. Naver Real Estate had been rising — from 3,205 to 4,585 to 5,404 — before falling to 2,043 so far this year.

Karrot, a peer-to-peer, community-based lifestyle platform, bucked that trend with a sharp spike this year. After fluctuating between 15 cases in 2021, 36 in 2022, 73 in 2023, 23 in 2024 and 85 in 2025, suspected real estate ad violations on the platform jumped to 221 this year.

Across all platforms, false listing information accounted for more than half of all violations detected. A Ministry of Land review of online real estate advertisements from July last year through June this year found that 5,201 cases — 55.4 percent of all violations flagged through routine monitoring — involved false descriptions of a building's designated use, floor area or included options. Ads that omitted required details such as address, area or price totaled 3,753 cases, or 40 percent. Another 429 cases, or 4.6 percent, involved advertisements posted by individuals without a licensed real estate agent qualification. Under the Licensed Real Estate Agents Act, false or exaggerated ads carry a fine of up to 5 million won ($3,730), while omitting required information can result in a fine of up to 500,000 won.

To help consumers avoid falling victim to false advertising, the Ministry of Land urged people to cross-check a listing's stated building use, floor area, outstanding loans and any building code violations against official documents — such as the building register or certified copy of the registry — before signing a contract. The ministry added that buyers and renters should verify that the advertiser is a registered real estate agent, and exercise caution with listings priced far above or below market value, as these are more likely to be fraudulent.