Apartment price gains slow in Dongtan, Giheung and Guri; Nowon-gu leads Seoul

Apartment price gains slowed this week in newly regulated areas including Hwaseong's Dongtan and Guri, which were placed under "triple regulations" at the end of last month. Seoul also posted a slightly smaller weekly gain, while outer districts such as Nowon-gu continued to outperform.

According to the Korea Real Estate Board on Thursday, apartment prices in Hwaseong's Dongtan-gu rose 0.25% this week, sharply down from 0.73% the previous week. The district's weekly gain has now declined for four consecutive weeks after hitting 2.22% in the third week of June.

In Yongin's Giheung-gu, the weekly gain eased from 0.59% to 0.49%, while Guri's fell from 0.31% to 0.27%. The pullback appears to reflect weakening buying sentiment, as land transaction permit zone designations have made gap investment more difficult ahead of the government's expected release of a tax reform plan centered on higher property holding taxes.

Seoul apartment prices also rose at a slower pace, gaining 0.27% this week compared with 0.30% the previous week. The three major Gangnam districts — Gangnam-gu, Seocho-gu and Songpa-gu — all saw smaller gains. Gangnam-gu's weekly rise eased from 0.16% to 0.10%, Songpa-gu's from 0.32% to 0.29%, and Seocho-gu's from 0.11% to 0.10%.

Yongsan-gu (0.17%), Gwangjin-gu (0.16%), Yangcheon-gu (0.18%), Dongdaemun-gu (0.28%) and Gangseo-gu (0.29%) also posted smaller gains than the previous week.

By contrast, Nowon-gu's weekly gain widened from 0.37% to 0.43%, and Jongno-gu's rose from 0.29% to 0.40%.

Gyeonggi Province (0.17%) and Incheon (0.01%) also saw their gains narrow from the previous week, while apartment prices in regional areas outside the capital region turned flat. Nationwide, apartment prices rose 0.09% this week, down from 0.11% the previous week.

Nationwide apartment jeonse prices rose 0.11% this week, unchanged from the previous week. Seoul jeonse prices edged down to a 0.27% gain from 0.28% the prior week, while Gyeonggi Province's jeonse price gain ticked up slightly from 0.16% to 0.17%.