More Office Space Lies Empty in Seoul

Large buildings in Seoul have significantly more vacant office space than before the financial crisis.

Shinyoung Asset, a building management business, on Monday said the average office vacancy rate was 4 percent in Seoul in the first quarter, up 2.7 percentage points from the third quarter of 2008, right before the global financial crisis started.

The rate in the upscale Gangnam district south of the Han River stood at 5.2 percent, up 0.3 points from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter last year. It was the first time since the Asian financial crisis in the latter 1990s that vacancies in the district exceeded 5 percent.

Northern Seoul had a two-year high vacancy rate of 3.7 percent.

Seoul and vicinity could face a glut of office space given that speculative development has resumed as some economic indicators started recovering.