Regional Areas Fall Short, Capital Region Achieves Perfect Scores... Polarization in the Housing Subscription Market

'Harrington Place Anam' Perspective View

The apartment subscription market is polarizing between the metropolitan area and the provinces. While unsold apartments are increasing in the provinces, perfect-score winners continue to emerge even in the outskirts of the metropolitan area. Amid warnings of a real estate downturn, the process of distinguishing the wheat from the chaff is intensifying.

According to the Korea Real Estate Board on the 20th, perfect scores of 69 points for a family of four have repeatedly appeared among winners of recently offered apartments in the metropolitan area. For the apartment "Harrington Place Anam" with an exclusive area of 84㎡, announced on the same day, the lowest winning score was 69 points. Although the complex had only 199 households and just 55 units for general sale, 10,589 applications were submitted, resulting in an average competition rate of 193 to 1. Notably, the highest competition rate for the 84㎡ units reached 991 to 1. Earlier, on the 17th, the apartment "Hwaseong Dongtan 2 Jeil Punggyeongchae Firstier" announced winners with the highest scores of 69 points across all regions (local, other Gyeonggi, other areas). A total of 29,571 people applied for 270 units in the first-priority subscription, recording an average competition rate of 109.5 to 1.

In contrast, the provincial subscription market is freezing. Among 30 private apartment complexes that held subscriptions in the provinces until the 17th of this month, 15 failed to meet subscription targets. Particularly in Daegu, 4 out of 5 complexes that accepted applications this month were undersubscribed. "Dongdaegu Prugio Briscent," "Harrington Place Gamsam III," and "Duryu Jungheung S-Class Centum Foret" all failed to meet subscription targets in both first and second priority rounds and moved to first-come, first-served sales.

Undersubscription is also occurring in Gyeongnam, Gyeongbuk, Jeonnam, and Jeonbuk. The "Pohang Hanshin The Hue Pentacity" in Pohang, Gyeongbuk, which was offered earlier this month, supplied 2,158 units but only received 808 applications. Undersubscription has also appeared in private pre-subscription sales. In the Jang-an district of Busan, all types experienced undersubscription with only 118 applicants for 311 units.

Experts predict that as housing transaction markets stagnate due to weakened buyer sentiment, subscription markets will show more pronounced regional differentiation. Shim Gyo-eon, a professor in the Department of Real Estate at Konkuk University, said, "There is a burden from the rapid price surge, and some price declines are indeed occurring, but demand for homeownership markets will still rush in immediately if conditions such as location and price are met."

Meanwhile, according to Real Estate R114, the average competition rate for apartment subscriptions in Seoul nearly doubled from 125.2 to 1 in the first half of this year to 231.3 to 1 in the second half. This is the first time since Real Estate R114 began compiling related data in 2000 that Seoul's annual apartment subscription competition rate has reached triple digits.