Gimhae City Sees Rebound in Sales Prices Since Last November... Various Indicators Show Improvement

***From January to October this year (seems to be referring to last year), during this month... (this month is January), please specify the date of the Korea Appraisal Board data. // Please correct the errors and refine the article.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kang Woo-kwon] A favorable breeze is blowing in the housing market of Gimhae City.

According to data from the Korea Appraisal Board last month, the declining trend in the sale and jeonse prices of apartments in Gimhae reversed starting November last year, and the transaction volume also showed the highest number in the past five years recently.

The Gimhae apartment sale price index recorded negative values from January to October last year but turned positive at 0.15 in November. The jeonse price index showed the same pattern. The sale and jeonse price indices are calculated based on the prices in November 2017, set as 100.

Apartment transaction volume also surged nearly twofold from 10,588 cases in January 2018 to 18,742 cases as of November 2019. This is the highest transaction volume in the past five years compared to 17,299 cases in 2014, 14,642 in 2015, 12,782 in 2016, 13,493 in 2017, and 10,588 in 2018.

Along with this, the city reported that unsold houses, which reached about 2,100 units in May last year, decreased to 1,341 units as of December, and during this month alone, 20.8% (353 units) of the previous month's unsold inventory was sold, indicating that all indicators of the housing market are turning positive.

Some view these positive signals as a temporary effect caused by speculative capital inflow from the metropolitan area, but the city's investigation found the influence of metropolitan capital to be minimal.

Among the 18,742 apartment sale transactions in Gimhae until November last year, only 113 transactions (0.6% of total) were made by residents of Seoul. In contrast, transactions by Gimhae residents accounted for 13,444 cases, or 71.7% of the total volume.

Moreover, since the price reversal in October, the number of transactions by Seoul residents was only 17, which is negligible, confirming that claims that the recent housing market rebound was due to speculative capital from the metropolitan area are unfounded.

A city official stated, "The results of efforts such as adjusting apartment supply to stabilize the housing market seem to be gradually appearing. We will not be satisfied with this and will continuously monitor housing market trends to respond so that the market can be revitalized." He added, "With many positive factors such as the continuous expansion of urban infrastructure, the housing market is expected to regain vitality soon."