Apartments in Seoul's affluent Gangnam districts are being listed at sharply reduced prices, as a tax overhaul prompts more owners to sell while buyers hold back. Price adjustments are becoming pronounced in major areas including Apgujeong, Banpo and Gaepo, with the asking price for a large unit at the Sinhyundai complex in Apgujeong now more than 4.2 billion won below its late-2024 peak.
A 183-square-meter unit at the Sinhyundai apartment complex in Apgujeong-dong, Gangnam-gu, currently has a lowest asking price of 8.59 billion won ($6.2 million), the real estate industry said on the 20th. Despite being a sought-after unit on a high floor with a southern exposure, that figure is 4.21 billion won, or 32.9%, below the 12.8 billion won peak recorded in December last year. It is close to the actual transaction price at the end of 2024 and 1.46 billion won cheaper than the 10.05 billion won sale recorded on the 22nd of last month.
Price cuts are also appearing in Seocho-gu. An 84-square-meter unit at Banpo Xi is currently listed at around 4.3 billion won, about 900 million won below its peak in January this year. An 84-square-meter unit at Acro River Park, which once traded for as much as 5.6 billion won, has recently seen listings drop to around 5 billion won — some 500 million to 600 million won below its highest transaction price.
A nearby real estate broker said many owners initially planned to watch the market, but more listings have been coming out lately. The broker said that, given changes such as the overhaul of the long-term holding special deduction, more owners are expected to put homes up for sale going forward.
Even as sellers lower their expectations, transactions are barely picking up. From the 1st to the 20th of this month, only one apartment sale was reported in Apgujeong-dong — a 116-square-meter unit at Hanyang 3, fewer than the four recorded in the same period last year. Banpo-dong has also seen just two reported transactions so far, well below the 12 in the same period a year earlier. An 84-square-meter unit at Acro River Park changed hands for 5.39 billion won, about 200 million to 300 million won lower than the previous sale. The number of transactions could still rise as the filing deadline for actual transactions remains open.
On the ground, a wait-and-see mood among buyers is strong. An official at a brokerage near Gaepo Xi Presidence said that six or seven new listings appeared across all unit sizes after the tax overhaul, but no sales had closed in the past two to three weeks. The official said that even when prices are cut by hundreds of millions of won, buyers are only touring homes and delaying decisions because mortgage financing is unavailable.
The situation is similar around the Maple Xi complex in Jamwon-dong, Seocho-gu. The head of a nearby brokerage said inquiries from people looking for cheap listings are steady but are not leading to actual contracts, adding that distressed sales driven by concerns over tax burdens are gradually increasing, mainly among older owners.
The weakness in the Gangnam market is also evident in weekly price data. According to the Korea Real Estate Board, apartment prices in Gangnam-gu fell 0.05% in the third week of August, while Seocho-gu dropped 0.09%. Both districts extended their declines for a second straight week, and the drops widened from the previous week. Songpa-gu maintained an upward trend, but its gain narrowed to 0.10%.
The broader Seoul market moved differently. As gains continued in northern and outlying districts, Seoul apartment prices rose 0.22% over the same period, a bigger increase than the previous week. While the high-priced Gangnam districts underwent a correction, gains in relatively cheaper areas pulled up the overall Seoul index.
The market expects that price corrections in high-end homes and gains in mid- to low-priced areas will occur simultaneously for the time being, sustaining a split by location and price bracket.
Nam Hyuk-woo, a real estate researcher at Woori Bank, said that distressed listings from single-home owners who decided to sell after the tax overhaul appear to be continuing. He said that high-end apartments in the high-4-billion-won range, in particular, are expected to face rising comprehensive real estate tax and capital gains tax burdens, which will act as a factor pressuring listings onto the market in prime Gangnam areas for some time.
