Seoul Top 10% Apartment Prices Surpass 2 Billion Won for the First Time

9.41 Times Higher Than the Bottom 10% Transaction Prices
80% of the Top 10% Transactions Occur in Gangnam 3 Districts

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] The top 10% of Seoul apartment prices sold in 2019 surpassed 2 billion KRW for the first time.

On the 20th, Zigbang analyzed the actual transaction prices of Seoul apartments from last year (as of the 16th) and found that the average price of the top 10% in transaction prices reached a record high of 2.13394 billion KRW. Compared to 2018, one year earlier (1.75685 billion KRW), this is an increase of 377.09 million KRW (21.5%). It also rose by more than 900 million KRW compared to five years ago in 2015.

Polarization within Seoul has also deepened. The ratio of the top 10% apartment prices to the bottom 10% recorded 9.4 last year, up 1.2 points from 8.2 in 2018. While high-priced apartment prices surged sharply, low-priced apartment prices remained stagnant.

Looking at the locations of the top 10% Seoul apartments last year by region, the Gangnam 3 districts (Seocho, Gangnam, Songpa-gu) accounted for 80.6%. The recently expanding new high-priced apartments in Ma-Yong-Seong (Mapo, Yongsan, Seongdong-gu) decreased in proportion from 15.4% in 2018 to 9.6% last year. This shows that the rise in high-priced apartments among the top 10% is expanding significantly centered on the Gangnam 3 districts.

Ham Young-jin, head of Zigbang Big Data Lab, said, “Since the government is imposing regulations on the high-priced apartment sales market, it will be difficult for prices to rise as sharply as last year.” However, he added, “Because the demand segment able to purchase apartments averaging over 2 billion KRW is limited, a sharp decline in demand is unlikely to lead to a significant price drop.” He also analyzed, “Although transactions of high-priced apartments will greatly decrease, it is unclear whether this will lead to actual transaction price declines and price stabilization in the mid-to-lower transaction market.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.