00:06Before you sign anything in Korea's property market, the numbers just changed.
00:13More than half of Seoul's Junse deposit contracts this year are renewals, not new leases.
00:20That means tenants are getting trapped in place because there's almost nowhere else to go.
00:26Available Junse listings across Seoul have shrunk by nearly 17% in just one year.
00:34Median Junse prices in Seoul just matched their all-time record from 2022.
00:40It's Wednesday, September 30th. Let's look at what's happening in Korea's property market.
00:46The government has doubled down on residence-first policies aimed at cooling Seoul's home-buying market,
00:53tightening the rules for landlords, multi-home owners, and registered rental businesses.
00:59New apartment completions in Seoul have been dropping since last year,
01:03so the supply that would normally flow into the Junse and monthly rent market simply isn't showing up.
01:10At the same time, tighter Junse loan rules meant to curb home prices
01:15are pushing more households toward monthly rent without adding any new units to the market.
01:21Here's what the numbers show.
01:24Renewal contracts made up 50.8% of Seoul's roughly 77,300 Junse deals signed between January and August,
01:34up from 41.1% a year earlier,
01:37and nearly double the 27.2% renewal rate recorded in 2023.
01:44Brand-new Junse contracts fell 38% year-on-year,
01:49a much steeper drop than the 25.7% decline in total Junse deals.
01:56Available Junse listings across Seoul dropped 16.7% over the past year,
02:03from 23,832 to 19,853,
02:09while monthly rent listings fell 15.3% over the same period.
02:15The outer northeast Seoul districts of Noon, Dobong, and Dongdaemun
02:20lost 43.2% of their Junse listings in a single year,
02:25the steepest decline anywhere in the city.
02:28Seoul's median apartment Junse price hit 560 million won,
02:34about US$403,000, in August,
02:38up 12.4% from a year earlier,
02:41and back to the record set in January 2022.
02:45A separate rule change takes effect next year.
02:48Tax breaks for registered rental apartments in regulated zones
02:52expire at the end of 2027,
02:55though the exemption on a landlord's own residence stays in place.
03:00So what does this mean for buyers weighing a purchase this year?
03:04Earlier, we said tenants are getting trapped in place.
03:07Here's what that actually means for you.
03:10If you're weighing a Junse lease against a purchase,
03:14expect fewer available units and higher deposits the longer you wait,
03:18since landlords currently have little incentive to release inventory.
03:22Watch three things.
03:25Whether Seoul's new apartment completions recover in 2027 and 2028,
03:31whether the government eases the residence requirement rules
03:34keeping investment units off the rental market,
03:37and whether the 2027 deadline on registered rental tax breaks
03:41pushes landlords to sell before it hits.
03:45That's today's AI Prism, real estate.
03:48This episode was produced with AI Assistants,
03:51based on Seoul Economic Daily reporting,
03:54and reviewed by a human editor.
03:57AI Prism is a Juan Afra award-winning series.
04:00We'll be back tomorrow.
04:02You've been listening to AI Prism from Seoul Economic Daily.
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