The chill in the nationwide market for newly offered apartment sales has persisted for more than a year. However, it was found that Seoul's first-priority subscription competition rate has posted triple digits for nine straight months.
According to an analysis by Real House, a firm specializing in presale evaluations, of Korea Real Estate Board (REB) Cheongyak Home data on the 21st, the nationwide average first-priority subscription competition rate in July (based on a 12-month moving average) was tallied at 5.86 to 1. That was down 0.05 points from the previous month, the lowest in 36 months. The nationwide average first-priority subscription competition rate has stayed in the single digits for 13 consecutive months since recording 9.08 to 1 in July last year.
By region, a downtrend was observed across the greater Seoul area. Seoul recorded 112 to 1, down 1.14 points from the previous month, while Incheon (4.23 to 1) and Gyeonggi (2.57 to 1) also fell by 0.36 point and 0.02 point, respectively.
Busan fell 1.56 points from the previous month, the largest drop nationwide. Jeju posted a competition rate of just 0.16 to 1, failing to escape an average shortfall for a full year. In contrast, Sejong saw its subscription competition rate rise from 13.31 to 1 to 15.71 to 1. Gwangju (1.90→3.14 to 1) and North Chungcheong (2.67→3.73 to 1) also saw higher competition rates than the previous month.
Of the 24 business sites that conducted tenant recruitment in July, more than half—13—failed to fill their quotas in first-priority subscriptions. Even among large-scale complexes with 1,000 or more units, which typically guaranteed strong demand, three out of four failed to fill their first-priority recruitment quotas.
By contrast, in Seoul last month, the first-priority supply for two complexes totaled only 96 units, but 6,927 applications were submitted. That accounted for about 26.5% of the nationwide total submissions (21,111) during the same period.
Real House presale analysis team leader Kim Seon-a said, "Rather than the disappearance of subscription demand itself, demand is shifting only to a small number of vetted complexes, dragging down results for the rest," and added, "In particular, if initial weakness appears in large-scale complexes, it can lead to the burden of uncontracted or unsold units, so the timing of the offering and price setting will determine the success or failure of the project."