Listings dry up in Nowon as first-time buyers sweep through Seoul's last affordable district

Listings in Nowon-gu, once a magnet for young people and newlyweds seeking their first home at relatively affordable prices within Seoul, are gradually drying up. After a round of reasonably priced units was snapped up, the gap between what sellers want and what buyers are willing to pay has refused to close.

Real estate offices near Sanggye-dong in Nowon-gu were largely quiet on Monday. Agents across the board said the rush of first-time buyers that had continued through July was now over, and that new listings and deals had become sparse.

The head of Agency A near Sanggye Jugong Complex 3 said about three people were on a waiting list asking to be called when an affordable unit came up, but that no listings meant no deals. "When newlyweds are trying to buy their first home, they need to compare distressed-sale listings against jeonse prices," the agent added, "but jeonse listings have dried up too, which is heartbreaking."

Nowon-gu is home to a concentration of complexes priced below 1 billion won ($735,000), which are relatively insulated from lending regulations, making the district a focal point for cash-strapped young buyers. According to data from the Court Registry Information Plaza, first-time buyers in Nowon-gu numbered 604 in August — the second highest of any district in Seoul after Gangdong-gu, which recorded 2,564 due to a surge of registration filings for new large-scale complexes. Of those, about 76 percent were in their 20s and 30s. In July, 78 percent of the 617 first-time buyers in Nowon-gu also belonged to that age group.

Agents on the ground said they had felt the same pattern firsthand. The head of Agency B near Sanggye Jugong Complex 5 said "first-time buyers — newlyweds or couples planning to marry — made up 60 to 70 percent of all clients." Agency C in front of Complex 7 echoed the trend, saying it had closed about 10 deals in June and July, every one of them with a newlywed couple.

Unlike the previous price-surge cycle, when speculative demand drove the market, agents said buyers today are almost exclusively people looking for a place to actually live. Smaller units — 43 and 56 square meters — were the first to go, reflecting the profile of those buyers. The head of Agency D near Complex 3 said that in 2021 it was common to see investors buying three or four units at once, but that things are completely different now. "Of the 10 deals we did last month, more than half signed contracts the same day they viewed the unit," the agent said.

Many of the first-time buyers who came to Nowon-gu relied on loans to finance their purchases. The Agency D head said the district is one of the few places left in Seoul where buyers can still use a mortgage to get into the market, adding that some couples had moved over from jeonse rentals in Uijeongbu to buy with a loan. "There were quite a few who came in having maxed out their borrowing," the agent said.

With real demand flooding a market of limited supply, prices climbed sharply. Agents said the market price for smaller units in the 56-square-meter range had surged to the mid-600 million won range. The Agency A head said asking prices at some complexes had reached the mid-700 million won range, and that any unit listed at 590 million won would be gone the day it hit the market.

At Sanggye Jugong Complex 3, a unit with an exclusive use area of 58 square meters sold for 710 million won last September before setting a record high of 880 million won in March. A deal closed at 835 million won on Aug. 21. Agents said asking prices in the area have since climbed to as high as 950 million won.

Agents cautioned, however, that asking prices diverge significantly from actual transaction prices. After one round of price increases, Nowon's real estate market has entered a standoff between sellers and buyers. The Agency B head said sellers and buyers are currently about 5 to 10 percent apart on price. "Buyers say they'll move if a distressed-sale listing at pre-May levels comes up, while sellers aren't willing to come down because they keep hearing that Nowon prices are going up," the agent said.

With both sale and jeonse listings shrinking simultaneously, agents worry that the burden on buyers with genuine housing needs could grow even heavier heading into the autumn moving season. According to the Korea Real Estate Board's weekly apartment price survey for the third week of September (based on Sept. 21), apartment sale prices in Nowon-gu rose 0.37 percent from the previous week, led by the Sanggye and Wolgye-dong areas. Over the same period, jeonse prices also climbed 0.47 percent — the highest rate among Seoul's 25 autonomous districts.

The Agency A head said the moving season typically begins in November, at which point listings for jeonse, monthly rent and outright purchase all vanish, leaving newlyweds scrambling for housing. "Because buying in Seoul is so difficult, many are turning their eyes toward Gyeonggi Province," the agent added.

Experts said the supply-demand imbalance driven by a shortage of listings is expected to persist for now, given that genuine buyer demand remains. Park Won-gap, a senior real estate specialist at KB Kookmin Bank, said demand from young buyers in non-Gangnam districts such as Nowon-gu has risen, and that the mismatch between supply and demand looks set to continue. "The pace of price increases may slow, but it is not easy to reverse direction in a real estate market that carries its own momentum," Park said.