62 Bidders Flock to Raemian Dangsan 1st Auction... Seoul Apartment Auction Market Heats Up [Real Estate A to Z]

Winning Bids and Success Rates Hit Three-Year Highs
Mapo, Yongsan, and Seongdong Districts Achieve 100% Auction Success Rate

#On the 9th of last month, 62 bidders flocked to the auction for an 85-square-meter unit at Raemian Dangsan 1st Apartment in Dangsan-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. This property had failed to sell at its first auction in July, causing the minimum bid to drop to 1.04 billion won, which is 80% of its appraised value. However, with a surge of bidders at the second auction, the property was sold at 1.35399 billion won, which is 104.15% of the original appraised value of 1.3 billion won.

The apartment auction market in Seoul, which had slowed after the June 27 measures, is showing signs of revival. The auction success rate has hit its highest point in over three years, and the winning bid ratio (the ratio of the winning bid to the appraised value) is approaching 100%. This renewed investor enthusiasm is being fueled by rising home prices and is spilling over into the auction market.

Asia Economy Database

According to the “September Auction Trend Report” released on the 4th by GGI Auction, a company specializing in auction and public sale data, the auction success rate for Seoul apartments last month stood at 50.7%. This marks a 10.4 percentage point increase from the previous month and is the highest level since June 2022 (56.1%). The winning bid ratio was 99.5%, almost reaching 100%, and is the highest since June 2022 (110%).

In particular, Mapo, Yongsan,·and Seongdong districts, where home prices are rising sharply, recorded a 100% auction success rate, leading the upward trend. Other districts also showed an overall upward movement. Last month, the winning bid ratio in Yongsan, Songpa,·and Dongdaemun districts rose by more than 10 percentage points compared to the previous month, while Mapo·and Gwangjin districts also saw their winning bid ratios increase by more than 7 percentage points. As the previously subdued buying sentiment revived, more investors flocked to the auction market. The average number of bidders was 7.9, similar to the previous month.

However, unlike Seoul, the nationwide auction market showed a contracting trend. Last month, the nationwide winning bid ratio was 34.9%, the lowest in two years since September 2023 (34.9%). Although the number of auctioned properties, particularly apartments in provincial areas, continued to rise, the success rate has kept declining due to weakened demand. The winning bid ratio was 87%, up only 0.9 percentage points from the previous month (86.1%). The average number of bidders was 7.4, down by 0.6 compared to the previous month (8).

In Gyeonggi Province, both the winning bid amount and the success rate continue to decline. The number of apartment auctions last month was 802, a 23% increase from the previous month (652), but the winning bid ratio fell by 0.3 percentage points to 86.9%. The auction success rate was also down by 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, recorded at 38.5%.