Recently, employees of Korea Land and Housing Corporation used confidential information and bought land where a land development project was scheduled, which led to condemnation and anger from people in the country.

However, the authority to manage and supervise the real estate market is dispersed across the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the National Police Agency, local governments, and National Tax Service. There is also no comprehensive monitoring of real estate transactions, which fails to respond to speculative transactions in a timely fashion.

Experts suggest promoting the use of electronic contracts in the real estate market and obligating the submission of a funding plan, which is currently required for submission to buy houses in regulated areas, for all real estate transactions including land and buildings in an effort to increase transparency in real estate transactions and accumulate various real estate information that can be used to establish real estate policies.

In this regard, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport introduced an electronic contract system to reduce the risk of double or fraudulent contracts that may occur during real estate transactions and increase transparency in the real estate market. However, out of 111,016 practicing licensed real estate agents as of the end of December 2020, only 32,754 (29.5%) have signed up for the electronic contract system, and the use of the system was 0.28% in 2017 and 0.77% in 2018.

Therefore, this Act aims to obligate the reporting of real estate transaction prices and funding plan and payment method required to acquire real estate in all real estate transactions and newly inserts the legal basis to establish and operate the real estate electronic contract system in an effort to enhance transparency in the real estate market (Article 3, paragraph 1, Article 25-2 newly inserted, and Article 25-4).

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