Seoul Apartment Prices Hit a Record 86-Week Rise While Gangnam and Yongsan Turned Negative

Seoul apartment prices rose for an 86th straight week, a record run, even as Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa and Yongsan all posted weekly price declines.

Seoul apartment sale prices rose 0.09% in the week to 28 September, their 86th consecutive weekly increase, according to the Korea Real Estate Board figures published on 1 October. That run now exceeds the previous record of 85 consecutive weeks, which ran from the second week of June 2020 to the third week of January 2022. Nationally, apartment sale prices rose 0.06%.

The record is being set by the parts of the market that are not the most expensive. In Gangnam-gu the index fell 0.56%, a deeper drop than the previous week's 0.42% decline. Seocho-gu fell 0.33% after a 0.37% fall. Songpa-gu fell 0.19%, widening from 0.14%. And Yongsan-gu fell 0.01%, its first decline in 22 weeks; the last negative reading there was 0.03% in the fourth week of April.

The momentum is draining week by week

Seoul's weekly rate of 0.09% was down from 0.13% a week earlier, and the pace has now narrowed for five consecutive weeks since reaching 0.22% in the fifth week of August. Outside the capital city, Gyeonggi province rose 0.15%, slowing from 0.23%, and Incheon rose 0.02%. The non-capital regions were unchanged at 0.00% for a third straight week.

That distribution is the story behind the record. A streak that depends on a Seoul reading of 0.09% while four of its central districts are falling, on a provincial reading of exactly 0.00%, and on a decelerating Gyeonggi, is a streak with a narrowing base. The headline measures persistence, not strength.

What this market looks like to a buyer from abroad

This is where our own South Korea data adds something the weekly release does not. A foreign land transaction permit zone was first designated on 26 August 2025, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport confirmed in August 2026 that it stays in effect from 26 August 2026 through 25 August 2027. It covers the whole of Seoul, 23 cities and counties in Gyeonggi province and nine districts of Incheon. A foreign individual, company or government must obtain prior approval from the local authority before acquiring any plot larger than six square metres, must move in within four months of purchase and must live in the property for at least two years. Non-compliance can bring repeated fines of up to 10% of the property value and cancellation of the purchase. The regime does not apply to gifts, inheritance, court auctions or officetels.

Read against the price data, that matters more than the streak does. Almost every area posting a rise this week sits inside the permit zone, and the residence requirement means a non-resident cannot buy into this record as a let property at all for the first two years.

The price level, and the yield we deliberately do not publish

Glopra records an average Seoul apartment sale price of 1,197,052 US dollars per unit, taken from a commercial bank's monthly housing price survey for August 2026, which reported 1,607,390,000 Korean won. That is a valuation survey of market prices rather than a register of completed transactions, so we classify it as an asking-type basis.

We publish no Seoul rental yield, and the reason is worth stating. Korean residential letting is dominated by jeonse, a large refundable lump-sum deposit that carries no monthly rent at all, and a jeonse deposit is not rent. The alternative, wolse, combines a deposit with a monthly payment, and only the monthly component is published. Pairing that bare payment with an average Seoul apartment price produces a gross yield of roughly 1.4%, far below the market's true economic return, because the landlord's return on the tenant's deposit is excluded. Until a conversion-rate-adjusted series can be sourced, an empty field with an explanation is more honest than a number that would mislead.

On tax, a non-resident individual who owns one Korean home and lets it long term is not taxed on that rental income under the Income Tax Act, unless the official assessed value exceeds 1.2 billion won. Assessed values in Seoul typically run at 60 to 70% of market price, so an average Seoul apartment stays well below that threshold. This is information, not advice, and the permit conditions above apply regardless.

Sources: Korea Real Estate Board, weekly apartment price trends for the week ending 28 September 2026, published 1 October 2026, as reported by Jaekyung Ilbo https://news.jkn.co.kr/post/1004154; Korea Real Estate Board weekly apartment price trends as reported by MoneyToday, 1 October 2026 https://www.mt.co.kr/estate/2026/10/01/2026100111102846291; Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport, extension of the foreign-buyer land transaction permit zones to 25 August 2027, as reported by The Korea Herald, 21 August 2026 https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10848132

Market data: Seoul · South Korea