'Up 300 Million Won in Just Two Weeks': Boiling Dongtan Apartment Market Sees Surge in Contract Cancellations

As apartment prices in Dongtan, which is heating up due to the semiconductor boom, rise sharply, cases of contract cancellations are also surging.

This is because prices skyrocketed following the decision by Samsung Electronics' management and labor late last month (May 2026) to pay high performance bonuses, making it more profitable for sellers to raise their asking prices even after paying double the deposit as compensation to cancel existing contracts.

Although buying sentiment in the Dongtan apartment market has slowed down slightly due to speculation that the area is close to being designated as a regulated zone, investment demand for last-minute "gap investment" (buying homes with jeonse leases) continued even over the weekend.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's actual transaction price system, 1,355 apartment sales contracts in Dongtan-gu, Hwaseong, have been reported for May so far.

Although about ten days remain until the reporting deadline at the end of this month (June 2026) for May contracts, the volume has already surpassed the previous month's transaction volume of 1,001 cases.

This transaction volume is even higher than that of November last year (1,121 cases), when a balloon effect occurred after the area was excluded from regulated zones during the October 15 measures last year.

Among these, a total of 82 contract cancellations have been recorded for May contracts so far.

This accounts for about 6.1% of the reported contracts in May, representing a 74% increase in cancellations compared to the previous month (47 cases).

Following the agreement between Samsung Electronics' management and labor on May 27 to pay high semiconductor performance bonuses and provide 500 million won in home mortgage loans, apartment prices skyrocketed. Consequently, homeowners who had sold their properties at lower prices before the labor-management agreement are now demanding contract cancellations.

A real estate agent in Cheonggye-dong, Dongtan, explained, "A homeowner who sold a property for 1.6 billion won last month returned the 10% contract deposit received from the buyer, paid an additional 160 million won of their own money as compensation, and then relisted the property for 1.9 billion won—an increase of 300 million won. Since they still net 140 million won even after paying double the deposit, contract cancellations are more frequent than usual."

According to local real estate agencies, apartments near Dongtan Station, the most preferred area in Dongtan, jumped by an average of 300 million to 400 million won or more in just two weeks following the settlement of the Samsung Electronics bonus agreement.

The 84-square-meter exclusive area of "Dongtan Station Lotte Castle," the flagship complex in the Dongtan Station area, was sold for an all-time high of 2.225 billion won on June 4, and its current asking price has soared to 2.4 billion won.

This is a jump of 400 million to 500 million won compared to the actual transaction prices of 1.9 billion to 2.0 billion won just a month ago.

Indeed, the neighborhood with the highest number of contract cancellations was Cheonggye-dong, where apartments near Dongtan Station are concentrated. Out of 257 contracts signed in May, 28 cases (10.9%) were cancelled.

The contract cancellation rate is nearly double the Dongtan average of 6.1%.

Yeoul-dong, Dongtan-gu, where "Dongtan Station Lotte Castle" is also located, saw 12 out of 159 contracts (7.5%) cancelled in May, making it the neighborhood with the second-highest number of cancelled transactions after Cheonggye-dong.

As contract cancellations rise, disputes are breaking out between buyers trying to pay the intermediate payment in advance to prevent cancellation and sellers refusing to accept it.

A real estate agent in Dongtan said, "Since a contract cannot be cancelled once intermediate payments are made, there is a tense psychological battle between buyers who want to pay in advance and sellers who refuse and want to terminate the contract. In some cases, they reach a compromise where the contract is maintained but the buyer pays a certain amount of consolation money to the seller."

Currently, the fire of rising prices that started in newly built apartments near Dongtan Station in Dongtan 2 New Town is spreading to nearby mid- to low-priced complexes.

Apartments around the Lake Park area, known as South Dongtan, are more than a 15-minute drive from Dongtan Station, but investment demand is flocking there as the construction of the Dongtan Urban Railway (tram) connecting to Dongtan Station is being promoted.

The 106.94-square-meter exclusive area of "Dongtan Lynn Strauss The Lake" in Song-dong set a new record high, with a contract signed for 1.5 billion won on June 7.

This is more than 100 million to 130 million won higher than the actual transaction prices of last month.

A real estate agent in Song-dong said, "While there are end-users like employees of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, investment demand to lease out properties with jeonse contracts has increased significantly because gap investment is possible in non-regulated zones."

As the government pushes to designate areas with surging home prices in non-regulated zones of the Seoul metropolitan area, including Dongtan, as regulated zones and Land Transaction Permit Zones, the market's response appears to be split in two.

End-users, facing growing fatigue over rising prices, seem to have turned to a wait-and-see attitude, intending to buy once prices drop after the designation of regulated zones.

On the other hand, investors seeking gap investments with jeonse leases steadily visited real estate offices even last weekend, saying they want to buy before the area is designated as a Land Transaction Permit Zone.

Locally, criticism is rising that the government may have missed the golden window for designating regulated zones.

A real estate agent in Dongtan said, "They should have designated it as a regulated zone immediately when the atmosphere became unusual after the expansion of performance bonuses. However, while the government and politicians delayed, keeping local elections in mind, prices rose to unprecedented levels. If designated as regulated zones and Land Transaction Permit Zones, gap investment demand will decrease, but it remains uncertain how much prices will fall due to the special demand from semiconductor employees with high performance bonuses."
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.