Real Estate Market Sudden Frozen, “No More Party”

The real estate market in the metropolitan area seems to have frozen suddenly since the government decided to bring up strong real estate market stabilization policies including the concepts of the public land system. There were many houses put up for sale, especially in the Gangnam area in Seoul: Gangnam-gu, Seocho-gu, Songpa-gu, Gangdong-gu, and these are fueling the declining rate in the prices of mainly the large houses.

According to “Buying My Own House Information Corp.,” a real estate information provider, the asking price for a 101 pyong apartment at Tower Palace in Dogok-dong, Gangnam has been reduced to 2.2-2.5 billon won on October 16 from a 2.5-3.0 billion won price earlier this month. The price for a 66 pyong B type at the same apartment decreased by 0.3 billion won from 1.65-1.9 billion won to 1.5- 1.6 billion won.

Housing for sale is greatly increasing, and according to Findall, a real estate information provider, 100 houses were put up for sale in their homepage from Tower Palace. Kim Yoon-jung, P.R director at the company, analyzed, “People are rushing to sell since they were assured of the government’s strong will to stabilize the housing price.”

The asking price for a 16 pyong apartment at Joogong 3 Danji, Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu recorded a decline of 60 million won compared to early this month, dropping down to 630-640 million won. Also the price for a 31 pyong at Eunma apartment in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu recorded 670- 720 million won, dropping by 40 million won, but nobody is making a deal.

A member of staff at J real estate office in Jamsil-dong, Songpa-gu said, “The asking prices have dropped by 60- 70 million won as part of the recent price decline. We are expecting the decline to continue to 100 million won.”

Doctor Apartment, a real estate information provider, reported that the selling price at Gangnam-gu (-0.07 percent), Gangdong-gu (-0.13 percent), and Songpa-gu (-0.22 percent) has dropped for the first time in four months on the October 15 compared to the October 10.

Other areas in the Seoul and Gyeonggi-do surroundings also have an increasing number in sales. However, since the people in demand are expecting the price to be declining more, we are hardly seeing any deals.

A member of staff at M real estate office in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu tipped, “There are cases that previous buyers right before signing the contract are canceling their plans saying that they would wait another couple of days. If this trend keeps steady, the price decline will continue until late November, which is moving season.”