Seoul Apartment Prices Hit Average 1.7 Billion Won, Deepening Homebuyer Woes

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The October 15 real estate measures, which designated parts of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province as regulated zones and tightened loan restrictions, marked their first anniversary today. While analyses suggest that speculative demand has been curbed to some extent over the past year, critics point out that the dream of buying a home has drifted further out of reach as the average sales price of apartments in Seoul has climbed to the 1.7 billion won mark.

Reporter Baegun has the story.

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This is an apartment complex with around 2,300 households in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul.

In November of last year, a unit with a dedicated area of 59 square meters changed hands for 1.29 billion won. Last month, a unit on a similar floor sold for 1.58 billion won, up nearly 300 million won.

Inquiries from buyers have continued steadily since the government designated all of Seoul as a regulated zone a year ago and reduced mortgage loan limits.

[Ha Hye-ryeon / Realtor in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul: Since prices here are under 1.5 billion won and up to 600 million won in loans are available, many people have purchased units by fully utilizing those loans.]

Starting from the second week of October last year, apartment prices in Seoul have risen by over 11 percent over the course of a year.

This is roughly double the 6.6 percent increase recorded during the preceding 52-week period.

The average sales price of Seoul apartments surged by nearly 150 million won over the past year, breaking through the 1.7 billion won threshold.

The number of autonomous districts where the average price exceeds 1.5 billion won has also increased to 13.

Amid a worsening shortage of jeonse (lump-sum housing deposit lease) properties driven by stricter actual residency requirements, genuine homebuyers facing loan restrictions are turning to relatively affordable areas, pushing up prices in northern Seoul and the metropolitan area.

[Yu Gi-hak / Nowon-gu, Seoul: Loans need to be readily available so we can even dream of buying. Right now, it is completely out of the question. I am even thinking about moving further out to the outskirts.]

Experts point out that while the October 15 measures successfully suppressed speculative demand such as gap investing—buying a home with a tenant's lease in place—they failed to effectively stabilize housing prices, highlighting the need to devise complementary measures for homeless genuine homebuyers.

[Ham Young-jin / Head of Woori Bank Real Estate Research Lab: For first-time homebuyers or those without a home, it seems necessary to slightly relax the LTV ratio or provide some kind of exit route for those purchasing a home using loans.]

Experts also note that the criteria for low-interest policy loans, which have seen a shrinking pool of eligible recipients due to rising housing prices, need to be revised to reflect current market realities.

(Video Editing: Jung Yong-hwa, Design: Zhuge Chan, VJ: Lee Ji-hwan)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.