It was found that the first-quarter business conditions felt by the real estate services industry, including real estate development, leasing and management, and licensed brokerage services, were negative. An uncertain economic situation, government regulations, and rising labor costs were cited as management difficulties. The real estate services industry expected a slight improvement in the second quarter, but pessimistic views still prevailed.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport released on the 8th the results of the Business Survey Index (BSI) for the real estate services industry for the first quarter of 2026. This is the first release since it was designated as national approved statistics in Nov. last year.
The Business Survey Index for the real estate services industry is a sentiment indicator compiled quarterly by surveying enterprises' current perception and outlook of business conditions in the real estate services industry. The survey targets a sample of 3,000 enterprises with at least one worker engaged in the real estate services industry, and examines perceptions and outlooks on business conditions by sector, industry conditions, sales, and funding conditions. With a baseline of 100, a figure above 100 indicates optimism, and below 100 indicates pessimism.
The overall business conditions BSI for the real estate services industry was found at 62.7. The business conditions BSI is an enterprise's comprehensive judgment of the economy as perceived.
While all sectors had a negative outlook, management (90.7), information and technology provision services (84.6), leasing (84.0), and appraisal services (80.2) posted relatively higher BSIs. Development (45.8), licensed brokerage services (34.3), and advisory services (29.3) were more pessimistic.
The second-quarter outlook BSI was found at 63.2. Although this is an improvement of 0.5 percentage point (p) from the first-quarter current BSI, pessimistic views still dominated.
By sector, the next-quarter outlook for information and technology provision services (100.3) was positive, while management (89.5) and appraisal services (82.5) had more pessimistic outlooks.
The overall industry conditions BSI for the real estate services industry was found at 60.3, and the second-quarter outlook BSI was 60.2. The industry conditions BSI is an enterprise's judgment of the internal conditions of a specific industry as perceived.
By sector, information and technology provision services (90.7), management (87.8), and leasing (82.5) were higher. Advisory services (30.4), licensed brokerage services (34.4), and development (42.8) were lower.
The magnitude of change from current conditions to outlook was generally small, but the outlook improved in advisory services, financial services, and development.
In this survey, the main management difficulties across the real estate services industry were an uncertain economic situation (47.9%), government regulations (16.3%), rising labor costs (5.7%), intensified competition within the industry (4.9%), and funding shortages (4.3%).
Jeong U-jin, land policy director at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), said, "This business survey is the first BSI national approved statistics in the real estate services field, and it is meaningful in that it has established a statistical basis for providing regular and systematic economic judgments on sector-by-sector perceptions and future outlooks," adding, "We will continue to produce and provide reliable statistics so they can be widely used in policy making and on the industry front lines."