'Myeongdong Nature Republic, the Most Expensive Land for 17 Years... 200 Million KRW per ㎡'

The site of the cosmetics specialty store Nature Republic located on Myeongdong 8-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul. This place has held the position of the standard land with the highest publicly announced land price for 17 years since 2004.
[Image source= Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The Nature Republic site in Myeongdong, Seoul, has held the title of 'the most expensive land in the country' for 17 consecutive years. The official land price of this site approaches 200 million KRW per square meter.

According to the '2020 Standard Land Official Price' to be announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 13th, the Nature Republic site in Chungmuro 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul (Myeongdong 8-gil) has an official land price of 199 million KRW per square meter this year. This site has maintained its position as the 'most expensive land' among nationwide standard sites for 17 years since 2004. Based on 3.3㎡, the price is 657.85 million KRW.

From 1989 to 2003, the number one nationwide standard site was the Woori Bank Myeongdong Financial Center site located in Myeongdong 2-ga (Myeongdong-gil). However, in 2004, the Nature Republic site recorded 41.9 million KRW per square meter, rising to the top nationwide. The price of this parcel has increased by 375% over the past 16 years. Compared to last year's 183 million KRW per square meter, it rose by 8.74%. Compared to 2018's 91.3 million KRW per square meter, which more than doubled, this year's increase is relatively modest.

With this official land price announcement, the total official land price of this commercial site measuring 169.3㎡ reached 33.6907 billion KRW. When the ownership of this land changed to Mr. Joo through an auction in 1999, the official land price was 3.63995 billion KRW (21.5 million KRW per square meter), marking an 826% increase. Mr. Joo also owns a five-story building constructed on this site. Since 2009, Nature Republic has rented all floors of this building. Previously, coffee specialty stores such as Starbucks and Pascucci were tenants.

Besides the Nature Republic site, all the top 10 official land prices nationwide were dominated by lands in the Myeongdong area. The second most expensive standard site nationwide is the Woori Bank Myeongdong Financial Center site in Myeongdong 2-ga, which held the top spot until 2003. This land, measuring 392.4㎡, has an official land price of 192 million KRW per square meter this year, up 8.17% from last year's 177.5 million KRW. Similarly, compared to 2018's 88.6 million KRW, which more than doubled, the increase has clearly slowed. The total official land price of the site is 75.3408 billion KRW.

The third-ranked standard site recorded 186 million KRW per square meter and is the site of a building housing Uniqlo and CGV in Chungmuro 2-ga. This year's increase rate is 6.59%. Following are ▲Tony Moly in Chungmuro 2-ga (179 million KRW per square meter) and ▲VDL in Myeongdong 2-ga (176 million KRW).

The average official land price increase rate for these top 10 sites was 6.06% this year, similar to the national average increase rate of 6.33%. Compared to last year, when the government's policy to reflect the reality of high-priced land official prices caused eight of the top 10 sites to more than double, showing an average increase rate of 89.3%, this year's increase rate shows a significant decline.

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