Seoul Apartment Prices Average 1.7 Billion Won, Deepening Woes Over Higher Barriers to Entry

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One year after designating all of Seoul as a regulated zone and tightening mortgage rules, speculative demand has been curbed, but the average price of an apartment in Seoul has risen to 1.7 billion won. Critics point out that the barrier to buying a home has become even higher.

Reporter Baegun has the details.

[Reporter]

This is a large apartment complex consisting of some 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, an increase of nearly 300 million won.

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

[Ha Hye-ryon / Real Estate Agent in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul: Since this place is under 1.5 billion won and qualifies for a 600 million won mortgage, many people bought the units by taking on the maximum loan available.]

For one year starting from the second week of October of last year, apartment prices in Seoul rose by over 11%.

This is roughly double the 6.6% increase recorded during the previous 52-week period.

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

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) homes driven by stricter actual residency requirements, genuine homebuyers facing mortgage restrictions have turned to buying properties in relatively affordable areas, leading to price increases in northern Seoul and the greater metropolitan area.

[Yu Gi-hak / Nowon-gu, Seoul: We could at least dream of something if loans were readily available. Right now, we cannot even think about it. I am even considering 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 attached—they have failed to properly achieve the goal of stabilizing housing prices, highlighting the need to devise supplementary measures for homeless genuine homebuyers.

[Ham Young-jin / Head of Woori Bank Real Estate Research Lab: For first-time homebuyers and those without a home, it seems necessary to partially ease LTV (Loan-to-Value) ratios or leave some exit routes open for them to purchase homes using loans.]

Experts also note that the standards for low-interest policy loans, for which the pool of eligible recipients has shrunk due to rising home prices, need to be revised to reflect current market realities.

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