Apartment Sales Plummet to Record Low

Apartment sales across the country have fallen to a record low amid plummeting demand. 

The volume of transactions and the proportion of apartments of all property sales have plummeted to an all-time low. Demand plunged as many people believed that soaring interest rates would further slash prices. 

According to the Korea Real Estate Board on Sunday, only 184,134 apartments were sold in the first half of this year, the lowest since statistics began in 2006. The only other times apartment sales fell below 200,000 from January to June was in 2019. 

Apartment sales this year nosedived 59.3 percent from the first half of 2020, when the country was in a panic-buying frenzy. Sales were particularly slow in the Seoul metropolitan area at 9,931, down a whopping 79.4 percent over the same period. They also tumbled in surrounding Incheon and Gyeonggi Province by 80.1 percent and 76.2 percent. 

The proportion of apartments changing hands in all residential real estate sales shrank dramatically. In Seoul, apartment sales fell to a record-low 28.4 percent. They fell dramatically in many mid-to-low-priced districts that had been popular among younger buyers who took out hefty loans in the past two years, and prices also fell sharply in these areas.

According to the Korea Real Estate Board, Seongbuk District saw the largest decline at 1.27 percent, followed by Nowon (1.05 percent), Seodaemun (0.97 percent), Gangbuk (0.95 percent), and Dobong (0.94 percent).