Auction Cases Hit 12-Year-7-Month High, But Indicators Deteriorate
Last month, the number of apartment auctions nationwide (a court procedure in which the home of someone who cannot repay debts is forcibly sold to pay off the debt) reached a 12-year-7-month high, but key indicators such as the success rate (the share of auctioned properties actually sold) and the sale-to-appraisal ratio (the selling price relative to the appraised value) worsened slightly. According to the October auction trends report released Friday by Gjoin, a company specializing in auction and public sale data, apartment auctions nationwide came to 3,851 cases, up 13.1% from the previous month (3,405 cases), the highest figure since March 2014 (4,063 cases). The report showed the nationwide apartment success rate fell 1.5 percentage points from the previous month to 33.9%, while the sale-to-appraisal ratio dropped 0.7 percentage points to 85.2%.
By region, the success rate for Seoul apartments plunged 13.5 percentage points from the previous month to 21.8%, the lowest since April 2023 (19.0%). However, the sale-to-appraisal ratio rose 5.4 percentage points to 100.1%, recovering to the 100% mark for the first time in three months.
A polarization in sale-to-appraisal ratios was also observed. Ultra-high-end apartments appraised at 2.5 billion won or more recorded a sale-to-appraisal ratio of only 97.1%, while those appraised at 1.5 billion won or less reached 103.6%. The highest-priced winning bid nationwide was for the Irum Tower commercial property in Dae hyeon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul (land area of 2,557.1 square meters), which sold for 28.11 billion won, or 66.7% of its appraised value of 42.163 billion won.
Unlike apartments, office and commercial property auctions nationwide in October saw the number of cases rise 1.0% from the previous month to 8,504, while the success rate climbed 1.4 percentage points to 21.0%. However, the sale-to-appraisal ratio fell 4.6 percentage points to 45.6%, the lowest level since August 2016 (44.9%). A dual-track pattern was confirmed, with residential and commercial market indicators diverging.
