Rapid Increase in Gap Investments by Teenagers in the Seoul Metropolitan Area Over the Past Year

Impact of Strengthened Multi-Homeowner Regulations
Gyeonggi Province: 1 Case Last Year → 98 Cases This Year
Seoul Also Saw a 10-Fold Increase in the Same Period

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hye-min] Over the past year, the proportion of teenagers engaging in 'gap investment' in the real estate market of the Seoul metropolitan area has significantly increased. This is interpreted as a psychological effect of stricter regulations on multi-homeowners, prompting parents to buy low-priced apartments or villas under their children's names for the time being.

According to the funding plans by metropolitan cities and provinces and age groups submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to Park Sang-hyuk, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, from the beginning of this year until May, teenagers purchased a total of 203 houses in the Seoul metropolitan area for the purpose of deposit succession or rental. This is about 25 times more than the 8 cases during the same period last year.

The fact that teenagers, who have difficulty earning income, bought houses with jeonse (key money deposit) suggests that they likely received part of the house price as a gift from their parents and covered the rest through the jeonse deposit. Since teenagers have limited background knowledge about real estate, it is presumed that parents gifted some money to their children to enable them to buy houses as gap investments. While some parents may have prepared houses early for their children, there are also cases where the children's names were used as proxies.

The most active area for teenage gap investment was Gyeonggi-do. While there was only one case last year, this year it reached 98 cases. Among these, apartment gap investments numbered 55, exceeding the 43 cases of non-apartments such as row houses and multi-family houses.

During the same period, Seoul also saw an increase from 7 to 69 cases, nearly tenfold. In Seoul, non-apartment gap investments accounted for 61 cases, or 88.4% of the total. As apartment prices surged, gap investments concentrated on relatively cheaper villas and similar properties. In Incheon, where there were no teenage gap investments until last year, a total of 36 gap investments were made this year.

Among metropolitan cities outside the Seoul metropolitan area, teenage gap investments increased mainly in regions with notable house price rises such as Busan and Daegu. While there were no cases last year, Busan and Daegu recorded 22 and 14 cases respectively this year.

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