Last year, a boom in 'lotto subscriptions' in Seoul led to the finding that 2 out of 5 domestic first-priority subscription accounts were used for Seoul sales. As competition for subscriptions in Seoul intensified, the average winning score and the lowest score (cutoff line) reached the highest levels in 10 years.

According to Real Estate R114 on the 30th, out of 1,508,001 subscription accounts registered nationwide for first-priority subscriptions last year, 603,481 (40.0%) were used for Seoul area sales. This means that 2 out of 5 first-priority applicants applied in Seoul.

The view of Raemian One Pentas in Seocho-gu, Seoul /Courtesy of News1

This ratio, which was 4.2% when the survey began in 2015, remained below 20% until 2022 but surged to 25.3% in 2023 and then jumped to 40.0% last year. This is the highest figure in 10 years since the survey began in 2015.

The proportion of first-priority subscribers in the capital region, including Seoul, was found to be 74.2%, significantly surpassing that of non-capital areas (25.8%). Among the 17 cities and provinces, Gyeonggi Province (28.4%) had the highest proportion of first-priority subscription registrations after Seoul. Excluding 2015 (15.6%) and 2017 (16.6%), Gyeonggi has maintained a usage rate of over 20% for first-priority accounts up until last year.

Following Gyeonggi, Jeonbuk (7.0%), Chungnam (6.2%), Incheon (5.8%), Daejeon (3.2%), and Chungbuk (3.2%) followed. Among regional cities, Busan had a first-priority subscription rate above 30% annually from 2015 to 2017, but fell to around 5.5% in 2018 and has not exceeded 12% since, dropping to 0.8% last year.

The background of the influx of first-priority subscription registrations in Seoul last year was due to so-called 'lotto subscriptions' centered around the three districts of Gangnam (Seocho, Gangnam, and Songpa), where substantial price gains could be expected.

Last year, the average competition ratio for apartment subscriptions in Seoul was 103.0 to 1, the most intense since 2021 (164.1 to 1). Lotto subscription complexes such as 'Raemian One Pentas' in Banpo-dong, Seocho District (527.3 to 1), 'Raemian Leventus' in Gangnam District (402.9 to 1), and 'Maple Jaï' in Jamwon-dong, Seocho District (123.67 to 1) drove the competition.

As a result, the average score for obtaining a subscription to buy an apartment in Seoul recorded 65 points. This is the highest level in 10 years since the survey began in 2015 (54 points). The average lowest score (63 points) and highest score (69 points) were also at their highest levels in the last 10 years.