This year, Seoul apartment monthly rents entered the 3% range for the first time, marking the highest annual growth rate on record.
According to the Korea Real Estate Board (REB) on the 21st, Seoul apartment monthly rents rose 3.29% from January to November this year. It is the first time since related tracking began in 2015 that the annual growth rate has exceeded 3%.
Seoul's annual monthly rent growth rate for apartments set a record high last year (2.86%), and it broke that record again this year.
The monthly growth rate of Seoul apartment rents, which was in the 0.1% range from January to April, rose to the 0.2% range from May to August and the 0.3% range in September, before surging to the 0.6% range in October (0.64%) and November (0.63%).
As all of Seoul was designated as a regulated area and a land transaction permit zone following the Oct. 15 measures, making "gap investment (purchasing with a jeonse deposit)" difficult, jeonse listings decreased and the conversion of jeonse to monthly rent appears to have accelerated.
Based on REB statistics, the average Seoul apartment monthly rent last month was 1,476,000 won (deposit 194.79 million won), and the median monthly rent was 1,220,000 won (deposit 110 million won).
Considering that this year's median income for a four-person household nationwide is about 6.1 million won, Seoul apartment residents are spending 20% of their income each month on rent.
Looking at the growth rates by Seoul's 25 districts, Songpa District recorded the highest apartment monthly rent increase from the start of the year through last month at 7.54%, followed by Yongsan District (6.35%), Gangdong District (5.22%), and Yeongdeungpo District (5.09%).
Guro and Eunpyeong districts (each 1.93%), Dongdaemun District (1.72%), Dobong District (1.57%), Geumcheon District (1.44%), Gangbuk District (1.40%), and Jungnang District (1.02%) were limited to increases in the 1% range.
From the start of the year through last month, more than 230 ultra-high-priced monthly rent transactions of 10 million won or more were concluded in Seoul.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's actual transaction disclosure system, from January to November, ultra-high-priced monthly rent transactions totaled 7 in 2018, 11 in 2019, 20 in 2020, 61 in 2021, 166 in 2022, 189 in 2023, 192 last year, and 233 this year, setting a record high for the seventh straight year.
The most expensive monthly rent contract this year is for Eterno Cheongdam in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul, with an exclusive area of 231.5564 square meters (13th floor), signed on Nov. 14. The contract calls for a deposit of 4 billion won and a monthly rent of 40 million won.
In the provinces, Ulsan Metropolitan City's apartment monthly rent growth rate was 3.21%. That is more than double last year's annual growth rate (1.49%).
In Ulsan, as the shipbuilding industry boomed this year with projects such as the U.S.-Korea shipbuilding cooperation "MASGA," a large influx of relocation demand followed.