[Anchor]

Apartment jeonse (lump-sum deposit lease) prices in Seoul have risen for 84 consecutive weeks. Driven by ongoing demand for more affordable units, price increases are particularly steep in Seoul's outer districts.

Reporter Baegun has the story.

[Reporter]

This large-scale apartment complex with 3,300 households is located in Nowon-gu, Seoul.

Last month, a 10th-floor unit with a dedicated area of 69 square meters was contracted for a jeonse price of 400 million won, but this month, the price jumped to 450 million won.

Last month, the housing jeonse price growth rate in Nowon-gu stood at 1.58%, the highest in Seoul.

Monthly rent levels were also about 1.8 times the Seoul average.

[Kim Kyung-sook / Real Estate Agent in Nowon-gu, Seoul: This is our living sphere, so we have to live here, but landlords are moving back in themselves and there are no properties left, so people are moving out toward Uijeongbu, Yangju, or Byeollae.]

With strength centered on outer areas persisting not only in sales but also in jeonse, Seoul apartment jeonse prices have risen for 84 consecutive weeks.

This marks the third-longest streak on record.

As a result, a growing number of tenants are opting for contract renewals instead of moving.

Last month, the proportion of renewal contracts among Seoul apartment jeonse agreements reached 58.9%, up more than 15 percentage points from a year earlier.

As jeonse market difficulties push rental demand toward non-apartment housing, Seoul's jeonse price index for tenement and multi-family houses has also surpassed its previous peak for the first time in 4 years and 7 months.

The transition of jeonse properties into monthly rent is also continuing.

From January to July of this year, the proportion of monthly rent among Seoul housing jeonse and monthly rent transactions stood at 69.7%, up 5.9 percentage points from the same period last year.

Monthly rent prices have also surged, with the average monthly rent for Seoul housing exceeding 1.3 million won for the first time since statistics began in 2015.

[Park Won-gab / Senior Real Estate Specialist, KB Kookmin Bank: With new move-in supplies being limited and the current phase being a transitional period where jeonse shifts into monthly rent, jeonse market instability is expected to persist for the time being.]

Experts advise that since there is demand turning toward buying homes due to rising jeonse and monthly rent prices, rental market stabilization policies must be pursued together to stabilize housing prices as well.

(Video editing: Choi Jin-hwa, Design: Seo Seung-hyun, VJ: Lee Ji-hwan)