Pre-sale and occupancy rights for the standard 84-square-meter apartments in newly built complexes across Seoul's mid- to lower-tier districts, including Nowon, Dongdaemun and Seongbuk, are converging toward the 1.8 billion won level. As these areas have recently driven up Seoul apartment prices amid a trend of high pre-sale prices, the baseline for new apartment prices is itself rising.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's real transaction price disclosure system Sunday, a pre-sale right for an 84-square-meter unit (44th floor) at Seoul One IPark in Wolgye-dong, Nowon-gu, traded for 1.8116 billion won on May 14. It marked the first time a pre-sale right for a standard-sized apartment in Nowon-gu surpassed 1.8 billion won.
The pre-sale price for the standard-sized units in this complex ranged from 1.262 billion won to about 1.414 billion won, the highest in Nowon-gu at the time of the 2024 pre-sale. Even before occupancy, the price has risen by at least about 400 million won from the pre-sale price.
While there are positive factors such as the Gwangwoon University station-area development and the new GTX-C line of the Greater Seoul metropolitan express railway, the infrastructure is not yet complete. Given that the area was previously a representative low-tier district for Seoul housing prices, the price trend is notable.
In Dongdaemun-gu, transactions in the 1.8 billion won range have already taken hold. An occupancy right for an 84-square-meter unit (9th floor) at Imun IPark Xi in Imun-dong traded for 1.835 billion won on April 18, and an occupancy right for the same-sized 22nd-floor unit was contracted at 1.83 billion won on May 9. A 32nd-floor unit is currently listed at an asking price of 2.05 billion won.
Dongdaemun-gu is one of the districts newly emerging in the Gangbuk area, as the Gangnam and Han River belt regions have contracted ahead of the end of the moratorium on heavier capital gains taxes for multi-home owners.
In the same Imun-dong, Raemian La Grande was also nearing entry into the 1.8 billion won range, with a 14th-floor occupancy right for a standard-sized unit contracted at 1.75 billion won on May 8.
Transactions exceeding 1.5 billion won, though short of 1.8 billion won, are also continuing. At Jangwi Xi Radiant Complex 4 in Jangwi-dong, Seongbuk-gu, the pre-sale price for standard-sized units ranged from 890 million won to the low 1 billion won level, but an 11th-floor occupancy right was contracted at 1.65 billion won on May 27.
An occupancy right for a standard-sized unit (16th floor) at Hillstate Mediale in Daejo-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, also traded for 1.58915 billion won on May 30.
"As prices in the mid- to lower-tier areas have risen significantly, new apartments in similar locations can command higher prices," said Nam Hyuk-woo, a real estate researcher at Woori Bank. "New apartments basically exceed 1.5 billion won and are increasingly converging toward 1.8 billion won. That is the current trend in the new apartment market in mid- to lower-tier areas."
Growth-rate indicators point in the same direction. According to the Korea Real Estate Board, the cumulative apartment sales price increase in Seongbuk-gu through the second week of June (as of June 8) reached 7.02 percent, more than nine times the 0.74 percent recorded in the same period last year. Nowon-gu, which fell 0.08 percent in the same period last year, rose 4.96 percent this year, while Dongdaemun-gu, which gained just 0.17 percent last year, is recording 5.50 percent.
