Real estate · South Korea · Licensed-broker market collapse

833 closed, 577 opened: South Korea's licensed broker market is folding.

South Korea booked 833 brokerage closures against 577 openings in December 2025; October had been 872 against 609. The active count of licensed real-estate brokerages (공인중개사 — the small neighbourhood property offices Koreans visit to buy or rent a home) fell to 109,979 in October 2025, the first dip below 110,000 in five years and two months. Demand for the licence itself collapsed alongside the market: 278,847 people sat the broker exam in 2021; 113,635 sat it in 2025 — an eight-year low. Of 551,879 licence-holders, only one in five still runs an office.

TL;DR

What hurts South Korea's solo licensed real-estate brokers (공인중개사 — small one-person property offices) have watched closures outrun new openings every month since February 2023. Transaction volumes have collapsed and the office on the corner no longer pencils.
How big 833 closures vs 577 openings in December 2025; 109,979 active brokerages in October (first dip below 110,000 in over five years); exam applicants 278,847 (2021) → 113,635 (2025).
Why startups win Build a Korean broker-vertical SaaS that bundles lead-routing, listing-copy generation, photo enhancement and virtual-walkthroughs for sub-₩100,000 per month — a recurring market of ~110,000 one-person offices that Naver, Zigbang and Dabang's consumer apps do not serve at the back-office layer. 2 vendors listed below; the dedicated broker-side bundle is the open wedge.

01The pain

833 closed. 577 opened. Those are December 2025 numbers for South Korea's neighbourhood property offices, the 공인중개사 (licensed real-estate brokerages). October was barely better: 872 shut, 609 launched.^1,2 Active brokerages fell to 109,979 in October, the first dip below 110,000 in five years two months.²

Closures have outrun openings every month since February 2023: 34 straight months.³ Nationwide property transactions fell to about one million in 2024, the lowest since 2006.⁴ Two government mortgage and speculation-zone packages in 2025 (27 June and 15 October) gutted what was left of summer turnover.³ Demand for the licence itself has cratered: 278,847 sat the broker exam in 2021; 113,635 in 2025, an eight-year low.⁵

A 10-year veteran summed up the math on a January 2025 board post: «사무실 한 곳 평균 매출이 월 3~4백, 강남도 5백입니다. 운영비는 연 1억5천~2억.» ("The average office grosses ₩3–4 million a month, Gangnam ₩5 million. Operating costs run ₩150–200 million a year.")⁶ The Korea Association of Realtors (한국공인중개사협회 — the broker trade body) blames housing sales, 전세 (the lump-sum-deposit lease unique to Korea) and regional land in prolonged slumps.⁵ The rest hold paper that no longer pencils.

109,979 active brokerages in October 2025 — first dip below 110,000 in 5 years 2 months.²

The rest hold paper that no longer pencils. — South Korea · Real-estate broker forum threads · 2025

Operators discussing this

These are real Korean licensed brokers (and adjacent commenters) talking about this pain in their own words. They are the reason this page exists.

«정상적인 방법으로는 돈이 안 됩니다. 자격증은 50만개를 돌파했고 40만개가 활동 안 합니다. 사무실 한 곳 평균 매출이 월 3~4백, 강남도 5백입니다. 운영비는 연 1억5천~2억. 저는 접습니다.»

"Doing it the legal way doesn't pay. Licences passed 500,000 and 400,000 are inactive. The average office grosses ₩3–4 million a month, even Gangnam only ₩5 million. Operating costs run ₩150–200 million a year. I'm shutting down."

10년차 현직 중개사 입니다. 자격증에 시간낭비하지 마세요. · DCinside 공인중개사 마이너 갤러리 — 30 comments on the 2025-01-20 OP; same DCinside bokdukbang gallery carries a multi-year operator-side arc (thread #38026 in 2022 → #141289 in 2024 → #157783 in 2025) — over three years of operating-broker voice on the same closure pain.
«중개업자가 중개에 신뢰가 없는데, 돈은 왜 받아??? 물건의 상태나 채무관계 확인은 중개업자가 책임지고 그 책임을 보증하기에 돈 받는게 정상아님?»

"If brokers have no credibility in brokering, why are they paid? Brokers are supposed to vouch for property condition and debt status — that's the responsibility the fee is paid for, isn't it?"

문 닫는다 공인중개사 비명…시장 회복세에도 폐업, 왜 · Ruliweb News Board — 24 distinct commenters on the 2023-09-30 thread on broker closures-despite-recovery; the same Ruliweb news/humour-board cluster carries follow-up threads through 2024–2026 as each new closure-stat news cycle hits — multi-year recurrence on the same pain pattern.
«(URL 404 at fetch time; listed for venue recurrence only — no snippet fabricated.)»

"Why real-estate agents in Incheon are closing one after another." (thread referenced via Google search index; URL currently 404 on direct fetch — listed for venue recurrence, not as primary citation.)

인천에서 공인중개사가 줄줄이 폐업하는 이유 · Clien Park Board — URL 404 at fetch time; listed for venue recurrence only. The Clien Park board already carries adjacent SMB cash-flow arcs for SK construction subcontractors, energy gas-stations and veterinary clinic-economics — this Incheon-specific closure thread extends the cluster into the real-estate-agent vertical.

02Who solves this today

Korean real-estate platforms and broker-side analytics products an operator reaches for to keep listings visible and to research market prices. Each homepage was checked live on the date of writing. Inclusion is not endorsement.

Dabang (다방) — Korean property-listings app for residential rentals and sales

Self-marketed verbatim as "부동산 필수 앱 다방" ("Dabang — the essential real-estate app"). A nationwide consumer-facing listings platform where licensed brokers post 원룸, 투룸, 오피스텔 and 아파트 inventory; the channel a one-person office reaches for to put a unit in front of tenants and buyers.

dabangapp.com

BdsPlanet (부동산플래닛) — real-transaction analytics and AI valuation

Self-marketed verbatim as "부동산의 모든 것을 담다" ("Everything about real estate, contained"). Daily-updated real-transaction price data, AI-powered property valuation, market reports, and building-condition (age and depreciation) analysis — the back-office reference a broker uses to comp a unit and brief a client.

property.bdsplanet.com

The open wedge. No Korean SaaS surfaced this cycle that bundles lead-routing, listing-copy generation, photo enhancement and virtual-walkthroughs under ₩100,000 per month for the long tail of one-person brokerages. The consumer apps (Dabang, Zigbang, Naver Real Estate) sit on the demand side and skim leads; back-office bookkeeping for the broker (CRM, AI listing copy, batch photo touch-up, 360-tour generation) remains unbundled. That is the recurring-revenue market a new entrant can pull together.

Listed providers publicly self-market in one of the wedges named above. Inclusion is not endorsement. Probed and dropped (each WebFetched on the date of writing): pro.zigbang.com (ECONNREFUSED), partner.zigbang.com (ECONNREFUSED), store.zigbang.com (ECONNREFUSED), www.zigbang.com (HTTP 403), www.dabangpartners.kr (ECONNREFUSED), new.land.naver.com (fetcher-blocked), land.naver.com (fetcher-blocked), land.kbstar.com (timeout), www.kbland.kr (returned only an Internet-Explorer-deprecation notice with no broker-side self-marketing), www.r114.com (returned only navigation chrome — no broker product copy), office.r114.com (ECONNREFUSED), r114bds.co.kr (ECONNREFUSED), realestate114.co.kr (ECONNREFUSED), www.realtyplus.co.kr (broker-adjacent construction-and-inspection services, not the broker-vertical SaaS wedge), www.newvision.co.kr (no usable Korean self-marketing returned), www.serve.co.kr — 부동산써브 (timeout), www.alimi.kr (TLS certificate name mismatch), www.callmaru.co.kr (ECONNREFUSED), www.thoz.co.kr (ECONNREFUSED), www.albang.kr → www.rndq.kr (redirected to an off-topic consulting site recovering government levies, not broker-side SaaS), www.directcrm.co.kr (ECONNREFUSED), www.naverbiz.com (ECONNREFUSED), realtor114.com (ECONNREFUSED), www.realtor.or.kr (ECONNREFUSED), www.kar.or.kr (timeout — trade body, not a vendor in any case), www.realtyok.com (expired TLS), www.jobang.kr (ECONNREFUSED), realtor365.kr (ECONNREFUSED), www.kkomak.com (ECONNREFUSED), riahn.com (parked domain), www.peterpan.kr (ECONNREFUSED), www.bantoo.co.kr (ECONNREFUSED), www.bizkr.kr (ECONNREFUSED), www.thinkofyou.kr (returned only an unrelated beauty-shop CRM at the same URL — not the intended Korean broker tool), www.realty360.co.kr (ECONNREFUSED), www.directly.kr (TLS certificate failure), www.directcando.com (ECONNREFUSED), www.t3q.ai → t3q.com (off-topic enterprise AI, not broker tools), hogangnono.com (HTTP 403), www.bobaedream.co.kr (off-topic — auto marketplace, not broker tools). KAR / 한국공인중개사협회 itself is a trade body and is referenced in section 01 as a public-record source, not as a solution provider. Naver Real Estate (land.naver.com) and Hogangnono — fetcher returned 403 / blocked; not listed because we could not capture verbatim self-marketing this cycle.

Help us improve this page

Report a mistake — or suggest a new solution

Spot a wrong number, dead source link, missing aspect, broken translation? Or know a vendor we should list as a solution? Tell us. The Director re-checks every report and either updates the page or writes back with a reason.

Listed companies — manage your entry. If you are one of the providers above and anything here is wrong, missing, or out of date — or you'd rather not be listed — write to us. Removal within 24 hours; corrections within 7 business days. We do not contact listed companies first; we publish what your own public marketing claims and respond when you reach out. Email contact@aikraft.com.