First-Priority Apartment Subscription Competition Rate Remains in Single Digits for 13 Months... Over Half Undersubscribed [Real Estate AtoZ]

RealHouse Analyzes Data from "Subscription Home"

As the nationwide enthusiasm for apartment subscriptions has cooled for over a year, applicants have increasingly concentrated on only a few complexes in Seoul. More than half of all complexes offered for sale in July failed to fill their quota with first-priority applicants.

According to an analysis by RealHouse, a specialist in presale evaluations, of data from Subscription Home by the Korea Real Estate Board on August 21, the average competition rate for first-priority apartment subscriptions nationwide in July was recorded at 5.86 to 1. This figure, which is the average over the past 12 months, is 0.05 lower than in June.

The nationwide average has not exceeded single digits for thirteen consecutive months, remaining at 9.08 to 1 as of July last year.

The capital region also saw competition rates fall across the board. In Seoul, the rate dropped by 1.14 to 112 to 1 compared to the previous month. Incheon decreased by 0.36 to 4.23 to 1, and Gyeonggi fell by 0.02 to 2.57 to 1.

The drop was most pronounced in Busan among the regions outside the capital. Busan’s competition rate declined by 1.56 over the month to 2.14 to 1. Jeju recorded only 0.16 to 1, falling short of the average for the 12th consecutive month.

Individual complexes fared even worse. Among 24 apartment complexes that announced tenant recruitment in July, 13 were undersubscribed by first-priority applicants. Even among large complexes with over 1,000 units, three out of four failed to fill the quota.

Subscription applicants flocked to a few select complexes in Seoul. In July, only two complexes were offered for first-priority subscription in Seoul, totaling just 96 units. These attracted 6,927 applicants. Of the 26,111 subscription applicants nationwide, 26.5% applied for these 96 units in Seoul.

Kim Seonah, head of presale analysis at RealHouse, said, "It’s not that demand for subscriptions has disappeared, but rather that applicants are concentrating on a small number of verified complexes, causing lackluster results elsewhere. In particular, initial underperformance at large complexes can lead to a burden of unsold or canceled contracts, meaning that the timing of sales and price setting will be critical to the success of a project."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.