[Anchor]

Guri has recently been designated as an additional regulated area, joining Hwaseong's Dongtan and Yongin's Giheung in Gyeonggi Province. There are growing concerns about a "balloon effect," as buying inquiries are flooding into other nearby regions.

Reporter Baegun has the story.

[Reporter]

This is a 600-unit apartment complex in Guri, Gyeonggi Province.

A 59-square-meter unit, which traded for 1.04 billion won in February of this year, rose by 55 million won within two months. The upward trend accelerated, reaching 1.22 billion won late last month.

Due to its proximity to Seoul, the area has solid demand from actual residents, and as a non-regulated area, it also attracted investment demand, causing apartment prices in Guri to rise by 8.2 percent this year alone.

However, buying inquiries have noticeably decreased since the designation as a regulated area.

[Jo Won-guk / Real Estate Agent in Guri, Gyeonggi Province: There are almost no investment inquiries. Those who are interested are actual residents who want to move in, asking how much of a loan they can receive.]

On the other hand, the atmosphere in the nearby Dasan New Town in Namyangju is different.

An 84-square-meter unit listed for 1.15 billion won on June 29 saw its asking price jump by 150 million won to 1.3 billion won just one day after the government announced the additional regulated areas.

The expectation that investment demand, which had been directed toward Guri, will shift here, combined with steady demand from actual residents, is driving up asking prices.

[Seo Mi-ra / Real Estate Agent in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province: More people are holding back on properties that already have tenants... They have decided that they are not in a situation where they need to sell urgently.]

Similar phenomena are appearing in Byeongjeom, Hwaseong, which is adjacent to Dongtan, and Manan-gu, Anyang, near existing regulated areas.

However, analysts suggest that this is merely a rise in asking prices and that a wait-and-see approach will continue for the time being as trading volume decreases due to many remaining market variables.

[Park Won-gap / Senior Real Estate Specialist at KB Kookmin Bank: Most core areas are already tied up as regulated areas, so the balloon effect is expected to be limited. There is also the possibility of a base interest rate hike in the second half of the year, so it would be better to approach the market with caution.]

The market's greatest interest lies in the real estate tax reform plan scheduled to be announced at the end of this month.

In its Korea Economic Survey released yesterday (July 2), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) analyzed that "a revenue-neutral shift from transaction taxes to holding taxes would contribute to a more efficient housing market."

Reported by Baegun | Video by Kim Jun-hee | Graphics by Park Tae-young | VJ by Jeong Han-wook