Seoul Housing Market Runs Out of Quick Sales... Is the 'Transaction Cliff' Returning?

"They say buying sentiment has revived, but honestly, I'm not sure. There were a few urgent sales transactions, but recently, the price gap between buyers and sellers seems to be widening, so the transaction freeze phenomenon continues." (Representative of real estate agency A in Ahyeon-dong, Mapo, Seoul)

After the large-scale deregulation such as the lifting of regulated areas, the Seoul housing market, which had been active, is showing signs of stagnation again after some urgent sale properties were sold out. The market, including real estate agencies, analyzes that buyers are returning to a wait-and-see stance as a flood of asking price listings appeared due to increased transaction volume centered on urgent sales and expectations from deregulation.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the Seoul Real Estate Information Plaza on the 9th, the number of apartment sales transactions in Seoul in the first week of April was confirmed to be 89. Considering it is still early in the month and the reporting deadline after the transaction is one month, the transaction volume is expected to increase, but compared to the transaction volumes from January to March (January 1,419 cases, February 2,461 cases, March 2,281 cases), it is clearly a sharp contraction trend.

The market also expects that the March transaction volume of 2,281 cases, which still has a reporting deadline, will hardly surpass the February volume of 2,462 cases. In particular, the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) purchased 252 units of 'Hoban Verdiem Stay One' in Daejo-dong last month to be used as 'Station Area Youth Housing' (public rental), making it difficult to consider these as actual transactions.

The trend of narrowing the decline in Seoul apartment prices has also stopped after 8 weeks. This reflects the situation where urgent sale properties have been rapidly sold out, and transactions have become scarce again, causing inventory to accumulate.

According to the weekly trend survey for the first week of April (as of the 3rd) released by the Korea Real Estate Board, Seoul apartment sale prices fell by 0.13% compared to the previous week. The decline, which had been decreasing for 7 consecutive weeks, recorded the same level as the previous week (-0.13%).

The Korea Real Estate Board analyzed, "Prices slightly rose in some mid-to-low price complexes due to deregulation effects," but also stated, "Overall, after urgent sale properties were sold out, the gap between buyers' and sellers' desired prices remains, resulting in sluggish transactions and continued inventory accumulation."

In fact, the market is seeing inventory build-up again. According to the real estate big data company Asil, as of the 8th, the number of apartment listings in Seoul totaled 61,516, an increase of 4.5% compared to one month ago (58,812 listings).

Meanwhile, this year, Seoul apartment transactions have been centered on urgent sales, continuing the downward trend in sale prices. The average apartment sale price in Seoul in March was 1,209.72 million KRW, down from 1,224.82 million KRW in February. The median price of Seoul apartments, which was 1,013.33 million KRW as of January this year, fell to 993.33 million KRW in February and recorded 975 million KRW in March.

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