Real estate services business sentiment edges up but remains pessimistic

Business sentiment in South Korea's real estate services industry improved slightly in the second quarter compared with the first, but pessimistic views continued to dominate, a new survey showed.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport released its "Q2 2026 Real Estate Services Industry Business Survey" on Friday, showing the business sentiment index (BSI) for the second quarter at 65.5, up 2.8 points from the previous quarter's 62.7.

The real estate services industry business survey is a psychological indicator compiled each quarter from businesses' assessments of current conditions and their outlook, expressed as a BSI score. A reading above the baseline of 100 signals optimism; a reading below it indicates pessimism.

The second-quarter BSI reading of 65.5 came in above the earlier forecast of 63.2. The third-quarter outlook stands at 65.6, marginally higher than the second-quarter reading.

By sector, the highest second-quarter BSI readings were recorded in property management (92.1), financial services (90.4), leasing (87.1) and appraisal services (82.8). Advisory services (33.2), licensed brokerage services (33.2) and development (48.7) posted the lowest scores.

Among sectors that improved from the first quarter to the second, financial services led with a gain of 13.5 points, followed by advisory services (+3.9 points) and leasing (+3.1 points).

The industry-conditions BSI — which reflects businesses' internal assessment of conditions within their own sector — rose 1.6 points quarter-on-quarter to 61.9 in the second quarter. The third-quarter outlook for this measure stands at 62.0, up 0.1 points from the second-quarter reading.

By sector, property management (89.5), financial services (86.2), information and technology services (78.3) and appraisal services (78.2) posted the highest industry-conditions BSI scores. Licensed brokerage services (33.2), advisory services (33.8) and development (47.5) recorded the lowest. Quarter-on-quarter gains were led by financial services (+13.9 points), development (+4.7 points) and advisory services (+3.4 points).

The sales BSI — which measures businesses' revenue from the sale of products or services — rose 1.6 points quarter-on-quarter to 66.2 in the second quarter. The third-quarter outlook stands at 66.4, up 0.2 points from the second-quarter reading.

The financial conditions BSI came in at 67.0 in the second quarter, up 1.7 points from the previous quarter. However, the third-quarter outlook slipped 0.3 points to 66.7.

"Uncertain economic conditions" was cited as the top business challenge, accounting for 44.9 percent of responses, followed by "government regulation" at 17.5 percent and "rising labor costs" at 6.5 percent.

The full survey results are available from Thursday through the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's statistics portal.