7 out of 10 People Apply for Housing Subscription This Year... "Now Is the Cheapest"

As real estate regulations are eased and the subscription market heats up again, it has been found that 7 out of 10 prospective subscribers this year are challenging the complexes they are interested in. This is attributed to the perception that "now is the cheapest" due to the rise in sale prices.

Prospective applicants seeking pre-subscription are receiving consultations at the application site. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

On the 14th, real estate platform Zigbang conducted a survey of 1,083 application users (July 17-31, confidence level 95% ± 2.98 percentage points), revealing that 725 respondents had already applied or planned to apply in the second half of this year.

The most common reason for applying was "because the complex of interest is proceeding with sales," at 39.7%, followed by "because sale prices seem likely to continue rising," at 21.3%. Next were "because sales conditions have been eased compared to before" (21.4%) and "because existing apartment sale prices seem to keep rising" (10.9%).

In fact, the average nationwide apartment sale price exceeded 20 million KRW per 3.3㎡ for the first time last month, and in Seoul, private apartments have surpassed 30 million KRW per 3.3㎡ this year and continue to rise. According to the Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG), as of June, the price was surveyed at 31,927,500 KRW per 3.3㎡.

The rise in sale prices was also cited as one of the concerns when applying. According to response rates, "increased interest burden due to interest rate hikes" (35.0%), "low winning probability due to low subscription points and high competition rates" (26.1%), and "sale price increases due to raw materials and high inflation" (25.5%) were ranked high.

At the same time, among the 358 respondents who have no plans to apply this year, 33.5% cited "sale prices are too expensive" as the reason. "Already owning a house" was 31.0%, "no suitable sale apartments in the area of interest" was 11.5%, and "low probability of winning apartment subscriptions" was 10.1%.

Ham Young-jin, head of Zigbang Big Data Lab, said, "The nationwide average subscription competition rate rose from 3.8 to 1 last year to 9.2 to 1 this year," adding, "Due to domestic and international factors, construction material prices have increased, causing sale prices to steadily rise, which seems to have reinforced the perception that 'now is the cheapest'." However, he added, "Rather than planning subscriptions based on the atmosphere, it is important to carefully consider location and sale prices and establish a subscription strategy that fits your financial capacity."

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