Jamsil 'ELT' apartments slip below W3b mark as asking prices tumble

Downward price pressure on apartments in Seoul's Gangnam area is intensifying, with a string of lower-priced transactions now emerging in Jamsil, Songpa-gu. Asking prices for the standard 84-square-meter units at the area's flagship "ELT" complexes — Jamsil Els, Recentz and Triium — have fallen below 3 billion won ($2.23 million), while the reconstruction bellwether Jamsil Jugong 5 complex has also recorded transactions below 4 billion won.

According to real estate agencies in the Songpa-gu area, asking prices for Jamsil Els 84-square-meter units start at 2.94 billion won as of Thursday. That is 161 million won below the most recent transaction price for the same floor area — 3.1 billion won recorded Wednesday for a 22nd-floor unit. Compared with the record high of 3.7 billion won set in February for a 21st-floor unit, the asking price has fallen 761 million won. The last time an actual transaction for a standard-size Jamsil Els unit was recorded in the 2 billion won range was 18 months ago, in May last year, when a fourth-floor unit changed hands at 2.95 billion won.

The listing is understood to be a distressed sale, with the seller having sharply cut the original asking price. The head of a nearby real estate agency, identified only as W, said sellers are lowering their asking prices and sub-3 billion won listings are appearing, but actual deals have yet to follow. "Buyers are firmly in wait-and-see mode, and ordinary price adjustments are not enough to close a deal," the agent said. "Transactions are happening only sporadically, and only for deeply discounted distressed listings."

Jamsil Els, with 5,678 units, is one of the three large complexes collectively known as "ELT," alongside Recentz (5,563 units) and Triium (3,696 units). The lowest actual transaction price recorded this year for a standard-size Jamsil Els unit was 3.07 billion won, set in April for a second-floor unit. While no actual transaction in the 2 billion won range has yet been recorded, the emergence of late-2 billion won asking prices — more than 100 million won below the previous floor — signals a shift in market price expectations.

Sub-3 billion won listings have also appeared at Triium. Recent actual transaction prices for 84-square-meter units there have fallen to 3.05 billion won, and some high-floor listings are now on the market at 2.97 billion won. The units are available for immediate move-in with no sitting tenants, and their distressed-sale status has drawn buyer attention.

Another real estate agent in the area said Jamsil Els has traditionally attracted strong investment demand, making it more vulnerable to price corrections when the market softens. "Recentz, by contrast, has a school within the complex, which gives it relatively stronger price resilience among the three — there are still no listings below 3 billion won there," the agent said.

Price declines are also spreading to reconstruction complexes. Jamsil Jugong 5, which was trading above 4 billion won earlier this year, has recently seen transactions fall into the 3 billion won range, widening the correction.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's actual transaction price disclosure system, a 76-square-meter unit at Jamsil Jugong 5 sold for 3.73 billion won on Oct. 21 on the 15th floor — 520 million won below the complex's record high of 4.25 billion won set in February for a fourth-floor unit. A week later, on Oct. 28, another unit of the same size traded at 3.78 billion won on the seventh floor, keeping prices below the 4 billion won threshold.

Apartment prices in Songpa-gu have been falling in step with Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu throughout this year. The district has posted nine consecutive weeks of declines since the first week of September, dropping 0.17 percent last week. The recent slide has erased most of the earlier gains, leaving the cumulative increase for the year at 4.18 percent.

The number of sellers rushing to offload properties has grown amid concerns over tax burdens and potential policy changes, while buyers are holding back in anticipation of further price declines.

Financing conditions for buyers are particularly difficult. Government lending restrictions have sharply reduced the mortgage ceiling for high-priced homes. For properties valued above 2.5 billion won in the Greater Seoul area and other regulated zones, the maximum mortgage loan is capped at 200 million won. A buyer purchasing a Jamsil Els 84-square-meter unit at 2.94 billion won would need to come up with at least 2.74 billion won in cash even after maximizing the available mortgage. Acquisition tax and other concessions are on top of that.

A government-led overhaul of real estate taxation is also influencing sellers' timing. The tax reform package the government announced in August includes a restructuring of the long-term holding deduction to favor owner-occupants. If enacted as proposed, the deduction rate based on holding period alone would be reduced starting in 2028, and from 2029 only deductions tied to the length of actual residence would remain. Owners who have held a property for a long time but lived in it only briefly could face a significantly higher capital gains tax burden in the future.

A real estate expert who asked not to be named said Jamsil had previously narrowed much of its price gap with Gangnam, but the recent correction in Gangnam-area apartment prices appears to be pulling Jamsil down with it.