Average Apartment Price Exceeds Eight Million Won per 3.3 Square Meters

The national average apartment price is more than eight million won per 3.3 square meters (1 pyeong).

This result was released by Budongsan Serve, a real estate information website, on August 6. The company surveyed the average price of 5,832,489 apartments nationwide, and came up with an average price of 8.01 million won per 3.3 square meters.

Apartment price skyrocketed from 2001 to 2003 after the government deregulated the price of newly built apartments. The government announced policy measures, including the combined real estate tax, to curb the trend on October 29, 2003. The price dropped by 0.19 percent in the following year.

However, the shortage of apartment supply caused a price jump of 9.91 percent in 2005 and 22.87 percent in 2006.

As a result, the government released other measures, including setting a price cap on newly built apartment on January 11 this year. As a result, the price stabilized - a 1.88 percent increase - as of late July.

The average price of Seoul apartments is 16.27 million won per 3.3 square meters – double the national average and the country’s highest. Gyeonggi-do also showed a relatively high price of 9.39 million won per pyeong.

The average price per pyeong in the rest of Korea is 4.14 million won. The figure is 6.06 million won for Incheon, followed by 4.88 million won for Daejeon, 4.69 million won for Daegu, 4.40 million won for Busan and Ulsan, and 4.11 million won for South Gyeongsang Province.

bell@donga.com