President Takes a Step Toward Sejong Office... Could He Be the Savior of the Real Estate Slump?

The Sejong real estate market, which has been plummeting without bottoming out, is drawing attention as to whether it will find a turning point due to the effect of the presidential office.

According to the National Assembly on the 18th, the amendment to the Happy City Act for the installation of the presidential Sejong office passed the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee's bill subcommittee the previous afternoon. The amendment centers on installing the president's second office in Sejong. If it passes the full Land Committee meeting and the Legislation and Judiciary Committee review and then the plenary session of the National Assembly, the legal basis for establishing the presidential Sejong office will be established. Since the Presidential Transition Committee's Special Committee on Regional Balanced Development has also confirmed the installation of the presidential Sejong office as a national agenda, swift processing through bipartisan agreement is expected.

The real estate market is the most positively reacting to the news from the National Assembly. While expectations for the new government's real estate deregulation have invigorated real estate markets nationwide, including Seoul, Sejong alone has been excluded from this atmosphere. Sejong, which saw the highest increase in housing prices nationwide in 2020, began to see prices fall from the second half of last year and has been in a continuous decline for over a year.

According to the Korea Real Estate Board, Sejong apartment prices have fallen by 3.34% up to the second week of May this year. Sejong is the only place nationwide where apartment prices have dropped more than 3%. Since turning to a downward trend (-0.09%) in the fourth week of July last year, the decline has continued for 10 consecutive months. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's real transaction price disclosure system, an 84㎡ apartment in Dajeong-dong, Sejong, was traded for 590 million KRW on the 20th of last month. This is more than half down compared to the peak price of 1.12 billion KRW in November 2020.

Attention is focused on whether this steep decline can stop with the visualization of the presidential Sejong office. The representative of A Real Estate Agency in Dodam-dong, Sejong, said, "The price decline and the transaction freeze have caused a serious slump," adding, "Since the positive news about the Sejong office has been highlighted again, it is worth expecting a turnaround in the mood." In particular, expectations are high because the real estate market ripple effect of the presidential office has been revealed through Yongsan. In fact, last month, housing sale prices in Yongsan rose by 0.15% compared to the previous month. This is the highest increase rate among Seoul's autonomous districts, surpassing Gangnam (0.14%) and Seocho (0.12%). It is interpreted as reflecting development benefits due to the relocation of the presidential office.

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