Gangnam 3 District Apartment Prices Drop by 500 Million Won Each in 3 Months
Apartment prices in Seoul's Gangnam 3 districts (Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa) are increasingly being sold for hundreds of millions of won below previous transaction prices. With the number of buyers of high-end homes falling sharply, this signals that the housing price downturn is spreading into the core Gangnam area.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's actual transaction price disclosure system (a government site that publishes actual sale prices), a 25th-floor, 84-square-meter unit at Raemian Prestige in Banpo-dong, Seocho District, traded for 4.9 billion won on the 7th. Compared with the sale of a unit on the same floor for 5.45 billion won on June 17, the price fell by about 550 million won in roughly three months. An 84-square-meter unit at Dogok Rexle in Dogok-dong, Gangnam District, traded for 3.78 billion won on the 1st of this month, then a 16th-floor unit of the same size sold for 3.57 billion won on the 15th, two weeks later—a drop of 210 million won. A 100-square-meter unit at Olympic Athletes and Reporters Village Complex 1 in Bangi-dong, Songpa District, fell from 2.92 billion won on May 20 to 2.661 billion won on the 27th of last month, a decline of 259 million won.
Asking prices are also falling sharply. The asking price for a 117-square-meter unit at Hyundai 4th Complex in Apgujeong-dong dropped from 6.5 billion won on the 11th of last month to 6 billion won on the 12th of this month. The asking price for a 76-square-meter unit at Eunma Apartment in Daechi-dong fell from 3.3 billion won to 3.04 billion won, while that for a 76-square-meter unit at Jamsil Jugong Complex 5 in Jamsil-dong fell from 3.9 billion won to 3.75 billion won.
The weakness of the Gangnam area is already confirmed in figures from the Korea Real Estate Board statistics. In the second week of September, apartment prices in Gangnam District fell 0.36% from the previous week, while Seocho and Songpa Districts fell 0.26% and 0.12%, respectively. Gangnam and Seocho have declined for six consecutive weeks and Songpa for two consecutive weeks.
Still, Seoul's overall home prices have not turned downward. In the third week of September, Seoul apartment prices rose 0.13% from the previous week, marking an 85th consecutive weekly gain since the first week of February last year, tying the longest rising streak on record. The cumulative gain over this period is 17.5%, far exceeding the 7.7% rise of the previous longest rally from June 2020 to January 2022. Analysts say the weakness of the Gangnam 3 districts is being offset by gains in mid-to-low-priced and outlying areas, pushing Seoul's housing market into a polarized phase of 'Gangnam declining, outskirts rising.'
Behind the strength in outlying areas are supply shortages and jeonse (long-term deposit lease) prices. This year, the number of jointly occupied housing units scheduled for occupancy in Seoul is 27,158 households, down 26.9% from last year. From next year through 2029, the average annual number of units coming on the market is expected to be around 10,323 households—only 22% of the 47,000 households generally cited as an appropriate supply level.
Jeonse prices are also supporting sale prices. Through the third week of September, the cumulative increase in Seoul's apartment jeonse price index reached 8%, significantly higher than the 1.75% recorded during the same period last year.
