With the sharp rise in home prices in key parts of Seoul last year and a slump in the real estate market in the provinces occurring at the same time, the gap between the highest and lowest apartment prices nationwide widened to more than 14 times.
According to the Korea Real Estate Board (REB) on the 26th, the quintile multiple, which shows the average price gap between high-priced and low-priced dwellings in the nationwide apartment sales market as of December last year, was tallied at 14.45. In December, the nationwide fifth-quintile price was 1,342.96 million won and the first-quintile price was 92.92 million won.
The quintile multiple is the value obtained by dividing the average price of the top 20% of dwellings (fifth-quintile price) by the average price of the bottom 20% (first-quintile price), meaning the higher the multiple, the greater the price gap.
Looking at the annual trend in the quintile multiple, it rose from 12.80 in January last year to March (13.08), dipped slightly in April (13.02), then continued to climb, widening by 1.65 percentage points from the start of the year.
The nationwide quintile multiple hit a record high of 12.70 from July to December 2021, fell for a while, then rose again to set a record high in November 2024 (12.75). It has continued to rise this year as well, widening the gap between the top and bottom tiers.
In Seoul, the fifth-quintile price in December was 2,931.26 million won and the first quintile was 397.17 million won, with the quintile multiple at 7.38.
Private statistics from KB Real Estate also showed that last year's nationwide quintile multiple continued to set a record high throughout the year, reaching 12.8 in December. Seoul stood at 6.9.
Based on KB Real Estate, the nationwide first-quintile average price was 115.19 million won and the fifth-quintile price was 1,478.80 million won, while in Seoul the first quintile was found at 498.77 million won and the fifth quintile at 3,438.49 million won.
It is analyzed that while apartment prices in Seoul jumped sharply last year, led by the three Gangnam districts and the Han River belt, non-capital regions failed to escape a slump, widening the gap between the top and bottom tiers.
According to the REB, Seoul apartment prices rose 8.98% last year from the end of the previous year. Songpa District (22.52%), Seongdong District (18.75%), Seocho District (15.26%), Gangnam District (14.67%) and Mapo District (14.22%) posted high gains. In contrast, excluding some areas such as Ulsan, most non-capital regions were in negative territory, falling 1.08%.