Slight Decrease in Listings After Presidential Election... Trading Freeze Persists Amid 'Frozen' Buying Sentiment

Seoul Apartment Listings Down 3.1%
Sellers Hold Back... Buyer Sentiment Also Frozen

Apartment buildings in the Seoul area (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Tae-min] Since the end of last year, the number of apartment listings in Seoul, which had been steadily increasing, has slightly decreased following the presidential election. The weakened buying demand shows no signs of recovery yet, making it difficult to resolve the transaction freeze in the near future.

According to Asil (Apartment Real Transaction Price), a real estate big data company, the number of apartment listings in Seoul decreased by 3.1% (from 50,131 to 48,548) after the presidential election vote on the 9th. This appears to be due to some homeowners withdrawing their listings after the election results were confirmed. In fact, online communities are flooded with posts stating that "apartments listed for quick sale have been withdrawn" amid rising expectations of house price increases following the election.

While sellers are becoming more cautious, the weakened buying demand since the second half of last year also shows little sign of recovery. According to the Korea Real Estate Board, the Seoul apartment sales supply-demand index for the first week of March (as of the 7th) was 87.0. This marks 17 consecutive weeks below the baseline of 100 since the third week of November last year. The supply-demand index quantifies the ratio of demand to supply on a scale from 0 to 200, with values below the baseline of 100 indicating that sellers outnumber buyers.

With both buyers and sellers remaining cautious, the transaction freeze is expected to continue for some time. According to the Seoul Real Estate Information Plaza, the number of apartment sales transactions in Seoul last month was 599, about half compared to the previous month (1,085). The number of villa (multi-family and row houses) sales in Seoul also decreased by about 1,000 transactions, from 2,809 last month to 1,879. Although the reporting period is still open, these figures fall far short of last year's monthly averages when transactions surged (apartments: 2,699, villas: 3,913).

Seo Jin-hyung, president of the Korea Real Estate Society and professor at Gyeongin Women's University, explained, “Until the new government's pledges are implemented as policies, both sellers and buyers are postponing decisions. With local elections still ahead and uncertainty over cooperation among the majority parties, the transaction freeze is unlikely to be resolved easily in the near term.”