Apartment complexes are seen from Mount Namsan in central Seoul on Sept. 3.NEWS1
The prices of jeonse, or lump-sum deposits, for Seoul apartments have risen for 87 straight weeks, according to weekly data released by the Korea Real Estate Board (KREB) on Thursday, pushing the average deposit to a record high past the previous peak set during the Moon Jae-in administration's rental market crisis.
The milestone is a signal that Seoul's rental squeeze, once seen as a temporary side effect of pandemic-era policies, has become a structural feature of the market — running in tandem with the city's longest-ever streak of rising sale prices and deepening the financial strain on tenants who lack the capital to buy.
Seoul apartment jeonse prices rose 0.17 percent week over week in the second week of September, extending a streak that began the third week of January last year and has not broken since. The rise has moved in lock step with Seoul's sale prices, which have also climbed every single week over that same span.
The current jeonse streak is the third-longest ever recorded. The longest ran 135 weeks under the Park Geun-hye administration, from the third week of June 2014 to the second week of January 2017. The second-longest ran 134 weeks under the Moon Jae-in administration, from the first week of July 2019 to the third week of January 2022.
Under Park, low interest rates accelerated a shift from jeonse to monthly rent, shrinking the pool of jeonse listings. Under Moon, supply-and-demand instability in the jeonse market deepened after a trio of laws took effect that were aimed at strengthening tenant protections against steep rent hikes and sudden evictions.
The current rise also stands out for its pace, not just its length. Prices have climbed a cumulative 11.77 percent over 87 weeks, already approaching the 12.31 percent gain recorded over 134 weeks under Moon. That falls short of the 19.56 percent gain over 135 weeks under Park, but converted to a simple weekly rate, the current pace is about as fast.
The increase has also spread evenly across the city. Songpa District in southern Seoul posted the largest gain over the 87 weeks at 19.07 percent, followed by Gangdong District in eastern Seoul at 17.07 percent, Seongbuk District in central Seoul at 15.44 percent, Nowon District in northern Seoul at 15.33 percent and Gwangjin District in eastern Seoul at 14.31 percent.
A passerby looks at listings at a real estate agency in Seoul on June 11.NEWS1
That sustained climb has pushed Seoul's average apartment jeonse price past its previous record. According to the KREB's monthly nationwide housing price survey, the average jeonse price for a Seoul apartment reached 636.62 million won ($461,000) last month, up nearly 6 million won from the previous month and surpassing the previous record of 634.24 million won set in January 2022 under the Moon administration.
Some in the market warn the jeonse crunch could worsen further if the government keeps steering housing policy in favor of owner-occupancy. The market is already running hot: A 119-square-meter (1,281-square-foot) unit in Seocho District, southern Seoul, logged a record jeonse price of 2.5 billion won on Sept. 1, while a 117-square-meter unit in Seongbuk District hit 920 million won on Aug. 30.
But that heat hasn't shifted the government's stance: President Lee Jae Myung said in June that jeonse is "a system that will disappear in the process of normalization."
"If the government restructures the housing market around owner-occupancy, it can achieve its policy goal of centering the sales market on genuine end users, but that creates a problem in the rental market, where the pool of jeonse suppliers shrinks," said Seo Jin-hyung, a professor of real estate law at Kwangwoon University. "With Seoul's new housing supply still insufficient, if jeonse demand holds steady, the upward pressure on prices could continue for a considerable period."
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
