Last year, the average jeonse price for Seoul apartments topped 650 million won, approaching the level of 2021, when it hit an all-time high. Many expect the jeonse rally to continue this year due to a shortage of rental supply.
According to KB Real Estate on the 9th, the average jeonse price for Seoul apartments in 2025 is 665 million won. That is up 19 million won (3%) from 631 million won in 2024. It is 1 million won lower than the 2021 average jeonse price (666 million won), when both sales prices and jeonse prices hit record highs amid an overheated domestic real estate market.
Looking at the average jeonse prices for Seoul apartments by year, from 2016 to 2019 they stayed in the 400 million won range. The average jeonse price was 420 million won in 2016, 440 million won in 2017, 462 million won in 2018, and 474 million won in 2019. But in 2020 it surged to 575 million won, a jump of 101 million won (21.3%) in one year, and in 2021 it rose to 666 million won, up 91 million won (15.8%) from the previous year. Over 2020 and 2021 combined, the jeonse price increased 40.5% (192 million won).
After that, jeonse prices trended downward starting in 2022. The average was 636 million won in 2022 and fell to 587 million won in 2023. However, in 2024 it climbed back to 631 million won, signaling a return to an upward trajectory.
This year, many expect jeonse prices to rise more than last year. That is because factors such as a shortage of supply and the expanded designation of the land transaction permit system (toheoje) areas are expected to affect the rental market.
Yoon Soo-min, real estate specialist at NH NongHyup Bank, said, "With the expanded implementation of the land transaction permit system last year strengthening owner-occupancy requirements, jeonse supply shrank and pushed up prices," adding, "This trend is continuing this year, and factors such as heavier property tax burdens are also likely to affect the rental market, so I expect jeonse supply to decrease and prices to rise."
Sim Hyeong-seok, head of the Udabang Research Institute (U.S. IAU professor), said, "After the COVID-19 period, interest rate hikes led to reverse jeonse in 2022 and 2023, and many tenants renewed contracts with frozen jeonse prices," adding, "Starting this year, four years have passed since that period, allowing for jeonse increases again, and coincidentally, jeonse supply is tight and sales prices have risen significantly, so there is a strong possibility that jeonse prices will jump."
Reverse jeonse refers to a situation where jeonse prices fall and the landlord cannot return the existing tenant's deposit with the jeonse received from a new tenant. As inflation worsened after the COVID-19 crisis, interest rates rose from the second half of 2022, and tenants who had taken out jeonse loans faced higher interest burdens, switching from jeonse to monthly rent. As a result, jeonse demand declined and prices stabilized lower. However, those jeonse contracts signed at these low prices have now reached their four-year maturities, and with a shortage of jeonse supply layered on top, the view is that jeonse prices are likely to rise sharply.