Signs of real estate market recovery seen nationwide in Korea

[Image source: Gettyimagesbank]

The upward trajectory of the real estate market that began in Seoul and the metropolitan area is now raising expectations for its expansion across South Korea.

According to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport on Monday, the transaction volume for apartments in regional cities like Daegu, Ulsan, and Daejeon doubled in the past month compared to the beginning of the year.

In Daegu, apartment transactions reached 1,890 units in the past month, up 111 percent from January’s 895 units. Similarly, Ulsan saw its apartment transactions rise from 571 to 1,111 units, marking a 95 percent increase. Daejeon experienced a 78 percent increase, with apartment transactions rising from 606 to 1,080 units. Considering that there is still time for declarations on last month’s apartment transaction, the actual increase in transaction volume will be greater.

As the transaction volume increases, so does the property prices. According to the Korea Real Estate Board’s weekly apartment price trend data as of August 21, apartment prices in Daegu, Ulsan, and Daejeon all rose by 0.06 percent, which is the highest increase among the local metropolitan areas. Daejeon has seen a continuous upward trend in apartment prices for the past six weeks, while Daegu and Ulsan have both experienced three consecutive weeks of price increases.

Notable are transactions where prices have increased by tens of millions of won. For instance, a 130 square meter apartment located in Daejeon’s Yuseong-gu was sold for 1.08 billion won ($817,000) earlier this month. This is a notable increase of 210 million won compared to a similar property that was sold for 870 million won just last month.

“With the decrease in the supply of new apartments this year, there has been a shift in attention towards existing apartment transactions. If the housing lottery market continues to thrive, the interest in the local home sale market is likely to increase,” said a real estate agent in Daejeon.

In the city of Daegu’s Jung-gu, a 153 square meter apartment was sold for 785 million won on August 1. This marked a significant increase of 145 million won from its price of 640 million won in April. This year’s apartment supply in Daejeon is 3,430 units, which is only a third of the 9,494 units from the previous year.

However, even with the potential spread of the fervor in the housing lottery market across the country, there is still a considerable proportion of complexes that remain unpopular among buyers.