The CGV building in Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, has been put up for sale. IGIS Asset Management moved to sell the building as the fund using it as the underlying asset reached maturity. CJ CGV currently leases the entire building and uses it as a movie theater. This is the third attempt to sell the building, following 2022 and 2023.
The outlook for the sale is not entirely bright. Although it sits in a prime university district location, the slump in the film industry has persisted due to the spread of online video services (OTT), and even the commercial real estate market has entered a structural downturn amid the growth of online commerce.
According to the commercial real estate industry and IGIS Asset Management on the 7th, IGIS Asset Management is pushing to sell the Daehak-ro CGV building, an asset of the fund "EGIS Retail Real Estate Investment Trust No. 299," as the fund matures on Oct. 17 next year. The fund distributes to investors the revenue from rent generated by investing in Daehak-ro CGV and capital gains from future property sales.
The Daehak-ro CGV building, completed in 2004, is a 6-basement-to-9-above-ground structure with a total floor area of 5,250㎡ (1,558 pyeong). The officially assessed land price was 914.7 million won per 3.3㎡ (pyeong) as of last year. IGIS Asset Management purchased the building for 61.5 billion won in 2019.
IGIS Asset Management selected RealtyPlanet as the sales manager and plans to conduct bidding this month before selecting a preferred bidder. The goal is to sign a sale contract within the first half. A representative of IGIS Asset Management said, "We are attempting an asset sale as the fund's maturity approaches next year," adding, "The sale price is not known yet since the sale is still in progress."
Although the property is in a core Daehak-ro location, it is uncertain whether the sale will succeed. IGIS Asset Management already attempted to sell the building in 2022 and 2023 but failed to find a buyer. At the time, the rapid growth of the OTT market after COVID-19 depressed the movie theater industry, leading to a failed sale, and conditions have not improved much since. The slump in the movie theater industry continues due to the broader downturn in the film industry and shifting consumer trends. According to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), last year's theater attendance was 106.09 million, about 47% of the 2019 figure (226.68 million) and about 86% of the 2024 figure (123.13 million).
These shifts in market conditions have also affected rent payments for the building. CJ CGV, which suffered a sharp deterioration in operating performance after COVID-19, requested that as of Jan. 2022 the rent payment method be changed from a fixed rent to a structure combining fixed rent and a sales commission (previous month's net sales x commission rate). However, even if the sales commission increases, it cannot exceed the annual fixed rent before the change (3.04 billion won as of 2024).
CGV's master lease runs until June 27 next year, so if a buyer emerges, a new contract will have to be signed. If CGV does not extend, a new tenant must be found, but because the building is tailored to a movie theater, the pool of potential tenants is likely to be limited.
The recent slump in the commercial real estate market is also expected to affect this sale. While the decline in retail rents has somewhat eased since COVID-19, the prolonged slump in the retail market has prevented a turn to an uptrend. According to KB Real Estate, as of the fourth quarter of 2025, vacancy rates were highest for medium-to-large retail at 13.8%, followed by strata retail at 10.4% and small retail at 8.1%.
A KB Real Estate representative said, "With economic uncertainty growing due to recent geopolitical crises, it is difficult to be optimistic about a recovery in consumer sentiment, and the retail market is expected to struggle to escape its downturn for the time being."