This article was published on May 7, 2026 at 10:54 on Signal, a capital markets compass.
Choi Sung-hyun, Vice President and Head of Capital Markets at CBRE Korea, assessed that oversupply concerns in Seoul's Central Business District (CBD) are not as serious as the market anticipates. He expects the polarization trend, in which transactions are actively concentrated on premium assets in the CBD, to continue this year.
"Looking at the CBD, the current supply timeline is being pushed back somewhat due to rising construction costs and uncertainty over whether post-completion sales will materialize," Choi said in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily on Wednesday.
His analysis is that, as demand in the CBD remains steady, the delay in supply will prevent an oversupply situation from emerging. "Due to rising construction costs, newly built offices have no choice but to charge higher rents," Choi explained. "Rent is one component of an asset's competitiveness, and the comparative advantage against existing assets could be weak."
According to CBRE Korea, Seoul's commercial real estate transaction volume reached a record high of 33.7 trillion won last year. This was driven by improved borrowing conditions on the back of falling interest rates, along with active large-scale transactions. Choi cited polarization as a defining feature of last year's market and predicted the trend will persist this year.
"In the market, only premium assets are being traded, and ambiguous assets may face difficulty in finding buyers," Choi said. "The commercial office market is in a somewhat better position because there has been large-scale capital commitments from institutional investors (LPs)." He assessed that with Korea Post, the Korea Federation of SMEs, and the National Pension Service having committed substantial funds to commercial offices since last year, demand exists not only for core assets but also for a broader range of properties.
CBRE Korea ranked first for the seventh consecutive year in the 2025 Korea Commercial Real Estate Investment Advisory category selected by MSCI Real Assets. Last year's investment advisory transaction volume totaled $5.264 billion (about 7.87 trillion won), with a market share of 25.8%. The transaction volume rose 118% from the previous year, and market share increased by 7 percentage points.
Choi attributed these achievements to CBRE Korea's collaborative structure. CBRE Korea's Capital Markets division has a total of eight departments. The acquisition and sale advisory departments are segmented by asset size, from premium assets to small and mid-sized assets, and also advise on domestic and international transactions across asset classes such as hotels, data centers, and logistics centers.
"There are sometimes projects that require leveraging all of the firm's resources depending on the case," Choi said. "Organic collaboration is CBRE Korea's strength." He added, "If a particular asset is being converted into a hotel, the hotel team joins in, and during the remodeling process, we review the feasibility of various options, including the possibility of adding a data center."
