Housing Sales Volume Halved Compared to Last Year... Unsold Units Surpass 50,000

Housing Sales Nationwide Down 50.1% from January to November
Unsold Units Increasing Rapidly... Daegu Records Highest

View of apartment reconstruction site in Seoul city / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Noh Kyung-jo] Due to the real estate market downturn, the volume of housing sales transactions has dropped to half of last year's level, and unsold housing units have surpassed 50,000. The number of housing starts, which determines housing supply 3 to 4 years later, continued to decline.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 30th, the nationwide housing sales volume from the beginning of this year to November was 480,187 units, a 50.1% decrease compared to the same period last year (961,397 units), cutting in half.

By region, the metropolitan area (190,587 units) and provinces (289,600 units) decreased by 58.4% and 42.5%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. Seoul (53,163 units) decreased by 55.9%. By type, apartments (280,359 units) decreased by 56.1%, and non-apartment housing (199,828 units) decreased by 38.1%.

Amid the transaction cliff, unsold housing units exceeded 50,000. As of the end of November, nationwide unsold housing units were counted at 58,027 units, an increase of 22.9% (10,810 units) from the previous month.

Unsold housing units, which exceeded 20,000 units in January this year, surpassed 30,000 units in July, and entered the 40,000-unit range in September two months later, accelerating the accumulation speed.

In particular, unsold housing units in the metropolitan area increased by 36.3% from the previous month to 10,373 units, largely due to a 38.5% increase in Gyeonggi (7,037 units) and a 48.3% increase in Incheon (2,471 units) within one month. Seoul (865 units) decreased by 0.1% during the same period but is about 16 times higher compared to the end of last year (54 units). The provinces increased by 20.3% from the previous month to 47,654 units.

The region with the most unsold housing units nationwide was Daegu (11,700 units). In terms of rate, Ulsan (1,414 units → 2,999 units) and Chungnam (2,840 units → 5,046 units) surged by 112.1% and 77.7%, respectively, within one month.

Post-construction unsold housing, known as "malignant unsold," nationwide totaled 7,110 units, a 0.5% (33 units) increase from the previous month.

The volume of jeonse and wolse (monthly rent) transactions in November (based on reporting date) was 203,420 cases, a 5.4% increase compared to the same month last year. Also, the proportion of monthly rent in cumulative transactions was 51.8%, up 8.5 percentage points compared to the same period last year.

The housing starts, a leading indicator of housing supply, totaled 358,098 units nationwide from January to November, a 28.6% decrease compared to the same period last year. Apartments decreased by 27.6%, and other housing types decreased by 32.1%. During the same period, permits issued totaled 467,036 units, maintaining an increasing trend compared to the same period last year. This indicates that as unsold units increase, developers are hesitant to start construction even after obtaining permits.

Up to November, the nationwide supply volume of multi-family housing was 289,022 units, a 9.8% decrease compared to the same period last year. Housing completions nationwide were 361,056 units, a 1.4% increase.

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