Are Apartment Sales on the Rise Again?

Apartment sales recovered slightly last month after the government slashed punitive property taxes.

According to property service Real Estate 114 on Thursday, 6,647 apartments were sold in the Seoul metropolitan region in January, up 36.2 percent from the previous month. Sales have been on the rise for the fourth consecutive month after hitting rock bottom last September at 3,981.

Some 1,220 of them were sold in Seoul and 1,163 in Incheon, exceeding 1,000 for the first time since June last year. Gyeonggi Province saw a 35 percent increase to 4,264. The figures are expected to increase further as homebuyers have until the end of this month to report their January purchases.

But some 62.8 percent of apartments were mid-and low-priced homes ranging between W300 million and W900 million, up 4.2 percentage points from last December (US$1=W1,285).

Baek Sae-rom at Real Estate 114 said, "More and more homes worth some W1 billion have been put up for urgent sale and gone for under W900 million. Sales will rise gradually as new low-interest loan from the state housing agency have recently become available and loan curbs for multiple-home owners will also be eased from next month."