This year, the share of transactions by first-time buyers among sales of collective buildings (apartments, row houses, officetels, etc.) nationwide hit an all-time high. With market variables growing, including an impeachment political situation, an early presidential election, and tighter lending regulations, purchases appear to have increased mainly among first-time buyers, who receive substantial support from policy loan programs.
An analysis of statistics on sales ownership transfer registrations for collective buildings released on the Supreme Court's Registry Information Plaza on the 14th found that, among 659,728 collective building cases nationwide with registration completed from January to August, first-time purchase cases totaled 284,698, accounting for 43.2%.
More than 4.3 out of every 10 collective building purchases were made by people buying dwellings for the first time. This surpassed 42.5% in the same period last year and is the highest share for January to August since 2010, when the Supreme Court began releasing related statistics.
Even compared with annual statistics, the share of first-time buyer transactions surpassed the previous peak of 43.1% in 2013, marking the highest since the survey began.
The increase in the share of first-time buyer transactions is because there are many low-interest government policy loan benefits, such as first-time home purchase funds and loans for newlyweds and newborns, and, unlike owners with one or more dwellings, they are not subject to commercial banks' mortgage loan limits.
Financial authorities have, in the name of household debt management, continued from last year into this year to ban mortgage loans for single-home owners, but people without homes who are making their first home purchase are not subject to these restrictions.
Analysts say that a decline in investment demand for row and multi-unit houses or officetels due to interest rate hikes and jeonse fraud has also relatively led to an increase in first-time buyers. From January to August this year, the share of first-time buyers in Seoul stood at about 38%, the highest in 11 years since 2014's 38.8% (39.1% for the full year).
In terms of the number of transactions, it was the highest in four years. During this period, the number of first-time collective building ownership transfer registrations (284,698) was the most since 2021 (361,750), when home prices were at their peak. The nationwide number of registrations (659,728) was also the most since 2021 (1,040,459).