High-Priced 2 Billion-Won Complexes Lose Steam... Seoul Apartment Auction Winning Bid Rate Falls Below 100% [Real Estate AtoZ]
Sharp Drop in Demand for Large and High-Priced Properties
Winning Bid Rates for Mid- to Low-Priced Complexes Exceed 100%
Strong Interest Focused on Apartment Complexes Under 1.5 Billion Won in Seoul’s Outskirts
Recently, as demand for auctions of large-sized and high-priced apartments has declined sharply, the auction winning bid rate of Seoul apartments has fallen below 100%. Experts analyze that as the auction market shifts toward serving real owner-occupiers, bidding demand is increasingly concentrated on mid- to low-priced complexes valued at 1.5 billion won or less.
According to data from GG Auction, a public auction data specialist, the auction winning bid rate for Seoul apartments in the third week of August 2026 recorded 98.6%, a decrease of 6.7 percentage points from the previous week (105.3%). A winning bid rate below 100% means that the successful bid price is lower than the property’s appraised value. The average number of bidders per auction, considered an indicator of investment demand, was 6.1, a slight increase from the prior week’s 5.4.
The decline in auction demand was most pronounced for large-sized and high-priced apartments, and this has pulled down the overall winning bid rate. In fact, many of the top 10 properties with the highest auction bid rates last week were apartments located on the outskirts of Seoul, each with an appraised value of 1.5 billion won or less. For example, the Shindong-A Apartments in Yongdu-dong, Dongdaemun-gu recorded the highest winning bid rate; it was auctioned off at 903.99 million won, about 200 million won higher than its initial appraisal value (685 million won). The winning bid rate was 132%, and the property attracted 17 bidders.
Following this were Daerim Apartments in Sanggye-dong, Dongjak-gu and Hyundai Apartments in Wolgye-dong, Nowon-gu, which recorded winning bid rates of 122.2% (893.52 million won) and 121.6% (871.77 million won) respectively, each being auctioned off at more than 100 million won above their initial appraised values.
Among high-priced apartments with initial appraisal values exceeding 1.5 billion won, not a single property achieved a winning bid rate above 100%. In particular, cases in which ultra-high-priced properties fail to exceed their appraisal values at auction are becoming more common. For example, the Tower Palace in Dogok-dong, Gangnam-gu was listed at an initial appraisal value of 4.68 billion won and auctioned off at 4.501 billion won, recording a winning bid rate of 96.2%.
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Experts predict that for the time being, mid- to low-priced apartments in the outskirts of Seoul will continue to support the city’s overall auction winning bid rate. Ju-Hyun Lee, expert committee member at GG Auction, commented, "Following tightened lending regulations, recent tax reforms have increased tax burdens for non-resident single-home and multiple-home owners. As a result, investors who targeted ultra-high-priced, large-scale properties have turned to a wait-and-see approach. However, as real owners continue to flock to properties under 1.5 billion won in the outskirts, we expect the trend of high auction prices in this segment to continue."
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