Small Apartments Draw Surge in Demand Amid Skyrocketing Subscription Prices in Seoul Capital Area

As apartment pre-sale prices in the Seoul metropolitan area skyrocket, real home buyers are increasingly concentrating on smaller units with relatively lower entry barriers in the subscription market.

Ham Young-jin, head of the Real Estate Research Lab at Woori Bank, analyzed subscription home data from the Korea Real Estate Board regarding pre-sale prices per pyeong (3.3 square meters) and subscription application trends by apartment size in the capital area from January to September of last year and this year. The analysis showed that the overall average pre-sale price in the capital region jumped 22.2% over the past year, rising from 21.71 million won to 26.54 million won per pyeong.

In Seoul, out of a total of 145,736 subscription applications this year, 79.8% (116,305 applications) were concentrated on small units with a dedicated area of 60 square meters or less.

This trend is attributed to the sharp rise in pre-sale prices for larger units that previously enjoyed higher preference.

While the pre-sale price for units ranging from over 60 square meters to 85 square meters or less rose 23.9% from 46.48 million won per pyeong in 2025 to 57.61 million won this year, units of 60 square meters or less showed a flat to slightly lower trend (-0.4%), moving from 58.39 million won to 58.18 million won over the same period.

Although the pre-sale price per pyeong is higher for units of 60 square meters or less compared to those exceeding 60 square meters up to 85 square meters, the total pre-sale price paid by subscribers is lower for 60-square-meter units, resulting in a relatively smaller financial burden.

The proportion of subscription applications for units exceeding 60 square meters up to 85 square meters shrank by 23.9 percentage points from 35.5% in 2025 to 11.5% this year. Conversely, units of 60 square meters or less rose by 19.2 percentage points from 60.6% to 79.8%, with 8 out of 10 applications flooding into small units.

Gyeonggi Province showed a similar pattern, as the subscription share for units of 60 square meters or less rose by 12.6 percentage points from 21.0% to 33.6%, while units exceeding 60 square meters up to 85 square meters dropped by 17.6 percentage points from 74.3% to 56.6%.

Lab Head Ham Young-jin stated, "As the burden of total pre-sale prices increases due to benchmark interest rate hikes and rising costs for building materials and construction, real home buyers are giving up on the 'national standard' medium-sized apartments and downsizing their subscriptions to smaller units." He added, "The increased space utility of small apartments driven by advanced floor plan design technologies and the growing number of single- and two-person households have also had an impact."

Meanwhile, in Seoul, large units exceeding 85 square meters saw their subscription share increase from 3.9% to 8.7% despite a sharp 74.2% surge in pre-sale prices per pyeong from 39.87 million won to 69.46 million won.

Ham noted, "Another peculiar point is that large-sized apartment types in core locations or those with standout positional scarcity maintained high competition rates by breaking through pre-sale price resistance, driven by high expectations for market margin despite high prices."

(Photo provided by Ham Young-jin, Head of Woori Bank Real Estate Research Lab, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.