The number of homes in Seoul that went through court auctions and had their ownership transferred to successful bidders rose sharply in the first half of this year compared with last year. Analysts say the strain was especially severe in areas with high loan dependence, with volumes concentrated in Gangseo-gu, a district densely packed with row houses and multi-unit dwellings.
According to an analysis of data from the Supreme Court's registration information platform by Zipoom, a real estate information app, released on the 10th, applications for ownership transfer registration following forced auction sales in Seoul totaled 3,308 cases from January to June this year. That figure is up 42.5% from the same period last year. By month, there were 441 cases in January, 645 in February, 507 in March, 627 in April, 499 in May, and 589 in June.
An application for ownership transfer registration following a forced auction sale refers to the registration procedure filed to transfer ownership to a new owner after a debtor's property is sold through a court auction. An increase in the number of applications means that more cases went beyond being sent to auction to having ownership actually transferred.
By district, Gangseo-gu recorded the most with 1,102 cases. That amounts to one-third (33.3%) of all applications in Seoul. It was followed by Geumcheon-gu (331 cases), Guro-gu (306 cases), Yangcheon-gu (279 cases), and Gwanak-gu (185 cases). Combining these five districts yields 2,203 cases, meaning 66.6% of Seoul's total was concentrated in the southwestern area. Gangseo-gu saw the largest increase in scale, rising by 472 cases from 630 in the same period a year earlier.
Experts point to the slump in the row house and multi-unit dwelling market and high loan dependence as the backdrop for this concentration. They explain that homeowners who had borrowed to the maximum to acquire homes during the past low-interest-rate period could no longer withstand the burden of financing costs and the slowdown in the rental market, and that such cases stood out in non-apartment and mid- to low-priced homes, which recover more slowly than apartments.
By month, the number of applications in every month this year exceeded that of the same month last year. February and April each recorded figures in the 600s, driving the overall upward trend in the first half.
By contrast, the districts with the fewest applications were Yongsan-gu (4 cases), Jongno-gu (13 cases), Nowon-gu (19 cases), Jung-gu (21 cases), and Seongdong-gu (22 cases). The difference between Gangseo-gu, with the most applications, and Yongsan-gu, with the fewest, reached 1,098 cases. Some districts saw applications actually fall from a year earlier, including Yongsan-gu (10 cases to 4), Dobong-gu (65 cases to 59), Seongbuk-gu (83 cases to 81), Jung-gu (23 cases to 21), and Jongno-gu (14 cases to 13), showing contrasting trends across regions even within Seoul.
