Half of apartment unit transactions in Gangnam and Seocho made at new high prices

Half of apartment unit transactions in Gangnam and Seocho districts after the presidential election were made at new high prices. Meanwhile, seven of 10 apartment unit transactions in Seoul were made at lower prices than the previously highest prices, confirm‎ing skewed demand for Gangnam.

According to the data submitted on Monday by the Korea Real Estate Board to the office of Kim Hoi-jae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, 12 of 23 apartment unit transactions made in Seocho district between March 10 to April 12 were sold at higher prices than the previous records. In Gangnam district, such a share was 47.2 percent, or 17 out of 36 transactions.

In fact, several transactions were made in Gangnam at prices over one billion won higher than the previous transaction prices. For example, a unit in Herren-Haus 2 in Samseong-dong, Gangnam district with an area of 218m² for exclusive use was sold at five billion won last month, which is 1.6 billion won higher than the previous prices. A unit in Acro River Park in Seocho district with an area of 130m² for exclusive use was sold at 6.3 billion won last month, which is 1.2 billion won higher than the previous record.

Meanwhile, only 204 of 650 transactions (31.9 percent) made in Seoul were sold at higher prices than before. Low and middle-priced apartment units on the outskirts of Seoul accounted for a large share of transactions made at lower prices due to feelings of fatigue from price increases and loan regulations.

According to the weekly apartment price trend of the Korea Real Estate Board, apartment transaction prices in Seoul decreased by 0.05 percent from the first week of March to the second week of April while those in Seocho, Gangnam, Songpa, and Gangdong districts in Seoul rose 0.04 percent.

Such a trend is driven by low and middle-priced apartment units on the outskirts of Seoul. Four-hundred-and-sixty-two of 1,087 transactions (42.5 percent) made from March 9 to March 18 in Seoul registered to the real transaction price disclosure system of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs were below 0.6 billion won. The share of about 10 percentage points higher than the share of 33.6 percent during the same period last year.


cero@donga.com