Major Real Estate Platform Adds 'Petsquon'
Pet Market Reached 4.6 Trillion Won Last Year
As the population of pet owners increases, the related market economy known as 'Petconomy' (Pet + Economy) is expanding into the real estate market. Experts predict that the scope of this market will further expand due to the increase in pet owners and single-person households, as well as low birth rates.
According to the industry on the 28th, on the 15th of last month, the real estate platform 'Dabang' added 'Petsegwon' information to the detailed listing analysis page, allowing users to check nearby pet-friendly facilities for dogs. Users can now additionally check nearby animal hospitals, grooming salons, cafes, and hotels that dogs can use, along with information on surrounding transportation, convenience facilities, safety facilities, and school districts.
A representative from Dabang said, "We added pet-friendly facilities to the detailed listing information based on the fact that many users looking for one-room and two-room apartments live alone and raise dogs," adding, "It seems that this information is useful for college students and office workers living alone, as well as newlyweds without children."
Earlier in February this year, another real estate platform, 'KB Real Estate,' attracted attention by being the first in the industry to provide Petsegwon services. According to KB Real Estate's analysis of 8,873 Petsegwon businesses, the districts in Seoul with the best-established Petsegwon were Mapo-gu (1,084), Gangnam-gu (837), and Yongsan-gu (608), in that order. KB Real Estate provides information on restaurants, cafes, pubs, playgrounds, hotels, and department stores that dogs can use.
The Petconomy, which refers to the economic market related to pets, continues to expand due to the increase in pet owners, single-person households, and low birth rates. According to the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI), the market size related to pets was 4.6 trillion won last year and is expected to grow to around 6 trillion won by 2027, three years later. Last year, the domestic population raising pets was 15 million, accounting for 30% of the total population.
In particular, pet-specific strollers and nutritional supplements are so popular that their sales surpass those of infant and child products. According to Gmarket's conversion of the combined sales volume of infant and child strollers and pet strollers to 100, the sales ratio of dog strollers from the first to third quarter last year was 57%, 14 percentage points higher than infant and child strollers (43%). Riding this wave of popularity, pet-friendly paints that are not harmful to pet health and specialized funeral services have also emerged.
Experts say that the expansion of the Petconomy is a phenomenon arising from demographic changes such as the increase in single-person households and expect this trend to continue for the time being. Professor Park Hapsu, adjunct professor at Konkuk University Graduate School of Real Estate, said, "While pet-friendly facilities cannot yet be considered a core factor like education, transportation, residential environment, and convenience facilities in judging real estate, they can be seen as a new criterion influencing decisions," adding, "As demographic changes are expected to progress rapidly in the future, this trend will also continue."
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