In the first quarter of this year (Jan.-Mar.), the transaction volume of apartments in Seoul appeared to be the highest in four years. This is largely due to a significant increase in transactions centered around the Gangnam area, where the land transaction permission zone was lifted for about a month.
According to data from the Seoul Real Estate Information Plaza on the 27th, the transaction volume of apartments in Seoul for the first quarter was recorded at 19,377 cases. This is the highest level since the first quarter of 2021 (13,799 cases), when housing prices surged nationwide.
Monthly transaction volume was around 3,000 cases in January, similar to the level in the second half of last year. However, it increased to 6,441 cases in February and surged to 9,512 cases in March. The significant rise in housing prices, especially in the Gangnam area, was influenced by the Seoul city government's lifting of the land transaction permission zone for "Jamsam-daecheong" (Jamsil, Samsung, Daechi, and Cheongdam-dong) on Feb. 13.
However, after the Seoul city government expanded the land transaction permission zone to include all apartments in the three districts of Gangnam (Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa) and Yongsan on March 24, the transaction volume of apartments sharply declined again. As of that day, the transaction volume of Seoul apartments in April was 2,169 cases. Even considering that there is still time left in the reporting period, it is expected to fall significantly below the previous month's transaction volume.
With the expansion of transaction volume, the transaction amount also rose. Especially in the three districts of Gangnam, record-high transaction prices emerged, leading to an increase in the average transaction amount. The average transaction amount for apartments in Seoul in February was recorded at 1.46676 billion won, the highest level since data was disclosed by the Seoul Real Estate Information Plaza in July 2005.
However, in April, the transaction volume of apartments decreased, causing a slowdown in the price increase trend. According to the real estate information company Zigbang, the proportion of "increasing transactions" among all apartment transactions in Seoul, where properties sold for more than the previous transaction price, was 45.3% in April, down 4.1 percentage points from the previous month (49.4%). This marks the first decline in the proportion of increasing transactions this year.