Seoul Apartment Buying Sentiment Declines for 3 Consecutive Weeks... Gangnam 4 Districts Also Falter

View of apartments from Lotte World Tower Seoul Sky in Songpa-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Tae-min] Seoul apartment buying sentiment has shown a decline for three consecutive weeks. In particular, the buying momentum in the Gangnam area, which had been on the rise, is also weakening.

According to the Korea Real Estate Board on the 28th, the Seoul apartment sales demand-supply index for the fourth week of May (as of the 23rd) was 90.6, down 0.2 points from last week (90.8). This marks a decline for three consecutive weeks following a 0.2-point drop last week.

The Seoul apartment sales demand-supply index had risen for seven consecutive weeks after the presidential election due to expectations of regulatory easing such as reconstruction tax policies by the new government, but recently it has shown a mixed pattern of declines and rises. Four weeks ago, it rose by 0.6 points showing signs of recovery, but it has slightly declined again over the past three weeks. Generally, the lower the sales demand-supply index is below the baseline (100), the more sellers there are in the market compared to buyers.

By region, the Dongnam area (Gangnam 4 districts), which was the only area in Seoul to show an upward trend last week, experienced the largest drop. This week, the Dongnam area index fell by 1.0 point to 96.5 from last week's 97.5. The downtown area, including Yongsan and Jongno districts where the presidential office relocated (90.8), and the Southwest area, including Yangcheon and Yeongdeungpo districts (92.3), also saw slight declines. On the other hand, the Dongbuk area (86.2) and the Seobuk area (86.9) saw their indices rise compared to last week.

Gyeonggi Province, which saw its upward trend stall last week (92.4→92.1), showed another decline. Incheon also showed a decrease in buying momentum, dropping from 92.9 last week to 92.8 this week.