[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Tae-min] As the housing market freezes, nationwide apartment buying sentiment has declined for 13 consecutive weeks, reaching its lowest point in 2 years and 9 months. With growing concerns over consecutive interest rate hikes and economic recession, the buying momentum appears to be further weakening.
On the 13th, the Korea Real Estate Board's apartment sales and purchase supply-demand index for the second week of August nationwide was 90.1, down 0.4 points from last week (90.5). This is the lowest in 33 months since recording 90.3 in November 2019. The sales and purchase supply-demand index generally indicates that the lower it is below the baseline (100), the more sellers there are compared to buyers in the market.
The apartment sales and purchase supply-demand index in Seoul fell 0.2 points from last week (84.6) to 84.4. This is also the lowest figure in 3 years and 1 month since the first week of July 2019, when it recorded 83.2. The Seoul apartment sales and purchase supply-demand index has been declining for 14 consecutive weeks since May 2, when the temporary exclusion of heavy capital gains tax on multi-homeowners was implemented (91.1).
By region, the downtown area including Yongsan and Jongno districts maintained 83.2, the same as last week. The northwest area fell from 78.0 last week to 77.0 this week, and the northeast area dropped slightly from 78.0 to 77.9. The Gangnam area declined from 91.6 to 90.7, while the southwest area slightly rose from 89.4 to 89.5 this week.
For the entire metropolitan area, the index recorded 87.2, down 0.3 points from last week. This metropolitan figure is also the lowest in about 3 years since July 15, 2019 (86.9). Both Gyeonggi (89.2→89.0) and Incheon (87.2→86.1) declined compared to last week.
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