Even as Official Prices Rise, Hide-and-Seek Listings Remain

Seoul Dobong and Nowon Lead Growth Rates at 1st and 2nd "Worried About Next Year but Not Selling"
Both Single-Homeowners and Multi-Homeowners Expect Tax Relief from President-Elect Yoon

[Asia Economy Reporters Kangwook Cho, Seoyul Hwang] "Despite the increased burden of holding taxes, there are no inquiries about selling houses." (Representative of A Real Estate Agency in Nowon-gu)

"There is an expectation that the tax system will change and the burden will be reduced once the new government takes office anyway." (Official from B Real Estate Agency in Dobong-gu)

The government announced a policy to ease the holding tax burden only for single-homeowners while significantly raising the publicly announced prices of apartment complexes. As a result, the holding tax for multi-homeowners is inevitably set to rise sharply this year. However, despite these changes, the market response remains lukewarm. This is because there is a widespread view that policies will change anyway once the new government takes office, and that the direction will likely be toward tax reduction. Due to these expectations, homeowners are actually withdrawing listings after the announcement of the publicly announced prices.

According to data compiled by the real estate big data platform Asil on the 28th, the number of apartment listings in Dobong-gu, which has the highest public price change rate in Seoul's autonomous districts at 20.66%, decreased by 56 units (-2.8%) from 1,809 on the 23rd, when the prices were announced, to 1,753 as of that day. The same trend is seen in Nowon-gu, which ranks second with a 20.17% change rate. During the same period, apartment listings in Nowon-gu decreased by 101 units (-2.5%) from 4,109 to 4,008. Previously, listings in these two districts had been increasing this month. In fact, from the 1st of this month to the present, listings in Nowon-gu increased by 4.4%, and in Dobong-gu by 2.8%. However, an abnormal phenomenon of listings decreasing after the announcement of the public prices has been observed.

Nearby real estate agents unanimously said there were no inquiries related to the public prices. The representative of C Real Estate near Changdong Jugong Complex 2 and 3 said, "No one is interested in the public price announcement, and people are not reacting sensitively," adding, "Especially, the response from multi-homeowners is indifferent." The date when the changed public prices will be reflected in the holding tax is June 1. However, since it is after President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's inauguration, they believe there is a possibility of changes. President-elect Yoon, who pledged to restore real estate public prices to 2020 levels and normalize real estate taxation, expressed his intention to ease regulations on multi-homeowners during the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport briefing on the 25th, saying, "We need to examine more carefully whether it is right to impose excessive regulations on multi-homeowners." Mr. Choi Han-ho (68), representative of D Real Estate near Changdong in Dobong-gu, said, "Multi-homeowners seem to have expectations that tax systems such as holding tax and transaction tax will be eased when the administration changes."

Experts also forecast that the impact of changes in public prices on the real estate market has diminished. Kyunghee Yeo, senior researcher at Real Estate R114, explained, "Although multi-homeowners face increased holding tax burdens this year, they might wait for President-elect Yoon's pledge to exclude them from capital gains tax surcharges," adding, "Temporary two-homeowners or multi-homeowners in urgent need of funds may put their houses on the market, but the volume is not expected to be large."

There are ongoing calls for opening an 'exit route,' such as deferring capital gains tax surcharges, to encourage multi-homeowners to actively list their properties. Ultimately, it is expected that market participants will take more concrete actions after confirming how faithfully the new government implements its election pledges.

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