- ▲ A commercial area with a high concentration of real estate brokerages. ⓒNew Daily DB
As of March, 3,900 Seoul apartments were sold, recording the highest transaction volume since August 2021 (4,065 units). Looking at the cumulative transaction volume in the first quarter, the largest number of apartment transactions were in Nowon-gu, where mid- to low-priced apartments priced under 900 million won are concentrated.
As transactions are picking up, apartment prices in Seoul have also been rising for five consecutive weeks.
According to Real Estate R114 on the 25th, Seoul apartment transaction volume in March is expected to exceed 4,000 by the end of this month, considering the reporting period of about 30 days after contract.
Looking at the transaction volume in the first quarter, Nowon-gu showed the highest volume with 668 transactions. Here, the proportion of apartments priced under 900 million won is over 80%, the highest in Seoul.
Other high-cost areas followed, including Songpa-gu with 655 cases, Gangdong-gu with 540 cases, and Gangnam-gu with 525 cases.
Last year, Songpa-gu ranked first in annual apartment transaction volume in Seoul, recording 2,807 transactions.
It is expected that the process of resolving urgent sales in non-Gangnam areas will continue due to the increase in transaction volume.
Ji-hae Yoon, senior researcher of the Real Estate R114 Research Team, said, “There are signs that the existing structure will change, with Nowon-gu’s transaction volume rising to first place this year. This is because the options for actual consumers are decreasing due to the growing burden of monthly rent prices rising for a year and higher new construction prices.” said.
The fact that new construction prices are rising every day is also considered a factor in the demand for mid- to low-priced complexes.
According to the ‘Private Apartment Sales Price Trend’ announced by the Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG), the average selling price per 3.3㎡ of private apartments in Seoul as of last March was 37.94 million won, up 0.35% from the previous month and 23.9% from the same month of the previous year. Based on 84㎡, the amount is well over 1.1 billion won.
As transactions take off, apartment prices are also trending upward.
According to the ‘Weekly Apartment Price Trends’ for the fourth week of April announced by the Korea Real Estate Board, Seoul rose by 0.03%, continuing the upward trend for the fifth week.
Seongdong-gu had the largest increase of 0.13%, followed by Mapo-gu with 0.10% and Yongsan-gu with 0.07%. Nowon-gu, which ranked first in trading volume in March, maintained a -0.01% decline.
Senior researcher Jihae Yoon predicted, “The demand for switching from rent to lease is expected to increase, especially in low- and mid-priced areas of Seoul where loan limits and interest costs can be borne.”
