Seoul's office space market has emerged to become the fourth largest in the world by trading volume. Savills, a multinational real estate firm, said in a recent report that office space transactions in Seoul in the first half totaled US$1.64 billion. In the same period last year the figure was $2.21 billion, ranking the market the 11th largest in the world. Now it trails only Tokyo ($6.59 billion), London ($3.6 billion) and Paris ($1.72 billion). Next follow New York, Moscow, Shanghai, Munich, Madrid, Hong Kong and Beijing.

According to Savills, the actual trading volume in Seoul increased by two percent from a year ago in the first half when fluctuations in the exchange rate are factored in, while volume decreased in most of other cities. Tokyo saw a decline of 51 percent, London 52 percent and Shanghai 15 percent.

Mark Vink, a senior analyst at Savills, pointed out that Seoul and Taiwan were the only cities in Asia where trading volume expanded. Seoul's growth was attributed to investors seeing a potential for growth in the city thanks to stable vacancy and rental rates.