Apartment Prices Have Risen Every Single Week For A Year In This City

Bohyun Lee followed South Korea's prescribed route to success. She entered the country's top university to study economics, moved to Seoul in 2010 and built an adult life there - working, forging relationships and treating the capital as home.
The one thing she doesn't have is an actual home of her own. Over the past 16 years Lee has packed her belongings and moved seven times, cycling through a dormitory and rental homes as two-year leases expired. The hope of owning an apartment in Seoul, once a realistic goal, has steadily slipped out of reach.

"I've learned how to live without owning a home, but the dream hasn't disappeared," said Lee, 33, who works in the financial services industry. "Moving so many times wears you down, and it feels unfair."

Homes she once considered buying in the mid-2010s that were priced around 400 million won ($280,960) now trade at roughly three times that value, far exceeding what even a well-paid professional can accumulate through wages alone. For Lee, the market's relentless rise isn't an abstract chart but a lived reality in which she's seeing the bottom rung of the property ladder float out of reach with every extension of the rally.

The persistent increase in Seoul's property prices threatens to undermine support for President Lee Jae Myung as the young adults flocking to the capital for jobs decry their inability to put down real-estate roots. It also limits the central bank's scope to stimulate the economy at a time when persistent trade tensions threaten growth, as a rate cut might stoke excessive borrowing.

Apartment prices in Seoul have now risen for 52 consecutive weeks, according to Korea Real Estate Board. The rally has defied repeated attempts by successive governments to cool the market with steps including tighter lending rules, extending pressure on would-be buyers.

Tougher mortgage limits have transformed South Korea's capital into one of the most restrictive home-loan markets in the world, effectively locking out many potential buyers as prices advance further out of reach. 

Under the latest framework, buyers can borrow a maximum of 600 million won for homes valued up to 1.5 billion won. For properties priced between 1.5 billion won and 2.5 billion won, the cap drops to 400 million won, while homes above that range qualify for loans of just 200 million won.

The government lowered loan-to-value ratios to 40% in October in designated regulated districts that now cover all of Seoul, while maintaining a higher 70% cap for first-time buyers and those refinancing existing mortgages. The special restriction applying to properties in the nation's capital comes as apartment prices in Seoul rose almost 9% in 2025. Gains across the rest of the country were around 1%, underscoring the extent to which demand is concentrated in the capital.

In global terms, South Korea is not alone in tightening access to home loans. Other markets, including New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Singapore, have imposed strict loan-to-value ratios, debt-servicing limits or stress tests to cool overheated housing markets, while cities such as Hong Kong have paired lending curbs with hefty stamp duties, according to Pamela Ambler, head of investor intelligence and strategy Asia Pacific at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

Still, what sets South Korea apart is the breadth and speed of the measures applied at once, Ambler said.

"What makes Korea's measures notable is the combination of measures targeting the same market simultaneously, plus the speed of implementation," she said. "LTV restrictions in speculative zones, DSR caps, stress testing at higher interest rates and caps on mortgage growth or bank lending quotas create multiple overlapping constraints that can compound borrowing difficulties."

Gareth Leather, a senior economist at Capital Economics, said South Korea stands out for how strictly and systematically it applies debt-service rules, but is not uniquely restrictive overall when compared with other highly interventionist housing-finance regimes in parts of Asia.

Lee said she could pay mortgage interest, but the strict loan caps make an actual purchase nearly impossible, underscoring the way in which the government's repeated interventions have left Seoul's mortgage market looking draconian.

Seoul's population of 9.3 million exceeds the number of people living in New York City in a space that's about 75% the size of the American city.

For many in their 30s, the pressure is colliding with major life decisions, feeding into the nation's broader demographic strains by compounding already-low marriage and birth rates as young adults delay or abandon major milestones. 

Jun Lee, a 31-year-old finance worker considering marriage next year, said housing has effectively become a prerequisite before setting a wedding date.

"Housing is the biggest problem - the more I look, the more discouraged I feel," he said. "Given how fast prices are rising, I thought I needed to buy first if I can, and then plan everything else around it."

While he could manage mortgage interest payments, tight loan limits make buying difficult. Selling is also constrained, leaving the market clogged on both sides. Lee added government pledges to boost housing supply have offered little relief, noting that much of the planned stock consists of long-term rentals rather than owner-occupied homes.

"South Korea leans heavily on household lending curbs to rein in home prices - far more than most advanced economies, which deploy lending rules mainly to contain financial system risk," said Bloomberg Economist Hyosung Kwon. "But with supply shortages still looming, tighter credit alone won't break expectations of rising prices. Without credible measures to expand housing supply in line with demand, prices will keep pressing higher."

While some buyers are speculators, others are investors who simply sought a conservative alternative to stocks. Olive Lee, 57, said that after years of steady work, she chose property over stocks or other assets she considered too risky. She now owns four apartments in the Seoul metropolitan area with her husband, and higher taxes and tighter regulations have effectively locked them into ownership, constraining even routine decisions rather than enabling profit-seeking behavior.

"The growing perception of multi-homeowners as speculators, sometimes even casting them as a social ill, feels extremely unfair," Lee said. "I simply worked hard and accumulated the properties over time, without expecting the market to heat up this much."

Rising home values in Seoul have complicated the central bank's policy calculus for much of the past year. The central bank effectively ended its monetary easing cycle in January, as authorities eye the risk of investors borrowing beyond their means. Household debt, of which mortgage loans account for more than 60%, is nearing 90% of gross domestic product, heightening concerns over financial stability.

The Bank of Korea has repeatedly warned that excessive concentration of jobs, education and housing in the capital is feeding into South Korea's demographic crisis, discouraging marriage and childbearing by raising competition and living costs.

Governor Rhee Chang Yong also said in March last year that the problems of ultra-low birth rates, overcrowding in the Seoul metropolitan area and intense educational competition may appear separate, but are in fact "deeply interconnected."

According to a recent study by state think-tank Korea Development Institute, since 2019 more than half of South Korea's population has lived in the greater Seoul metropolitan area, which includes Incheon and surrounding parts of Gyeonggi province.

While concentration in large cities is a global trend, South Korea stands out: Despite three decades of balanced-development policies, including building entirely new cities, the flow toward the capital has intensified without a single reversal since the 1970s, KDI said in January.

The government has repeatedly tried to counter that pull, but the forces drawing people into the Seoul area have consistently outweighed policy efforts to disperse growth.

South Korea began relocating government ministries, agencies and state companies out of the capital in the mid-2000s, accelerating the push in the early 2010s with the creation of Sejong City as a new administrative hub. The moves were aimed at easing congestion in Seoul and slowing the concentration of people and jobs in the capital region.

Those efforts haven't changed the dynamics, and the political stakes are rising. After housing costs surged under the Moon Jae-in administration, real estate has remained one of South Korea's most sensitive economic flashpoints. After taking office last June, President Lee described the housing market as a "ticking bomb" and pledged to rein in prices.

Yet apartment values have continued to climb, fueling growing frustration among voters. Recent surveys show public approval of the government's housing policies has deteriorated sharply, particularly in Seoul - a trend that risks weighing on Lee's broader support ahead of nationwide local elections in June.

In response, Lee has rolled out a series of new measures meant to cool the price rally. In practice, however, the steps have tightened conditions on both sides of the market: Stricter lending rules make it harder for buyers to finance purchases, while heavier tax and regulatory burdens discourage homeowners from selling, effectively freezing supply.

The result is a system that leaves households with little room for error. If most people can realistically afford only one home, it makes sense to buy where demand is deepest and resale prospects are strongest, a dynamic that continues to channel buyers toward Seoul.

In a social media post on Jan. 25, Lee ruled out another extension of the temporary tax break for multiple homeowners, saying the grace period for punitive capital gains taxes had already been set to expire and that distortions created by abnormal policies must be corrected, even at the cost of short-term pain.

He followed up with a series of posts warning that authorities would not allow "waiting it out" to become a profitable strategy, adding that holding on to homes should not be cheaper than selling them. His remarks came amid reports of homeowners opting to hold on to properties rather than sell and pay higher taxes.

Following Lee's comments, presidential Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom told reporters on Jan. 28 that the government is reviewing broader changes to property taxation, including holding taxes, but cautioned that such reforms could have significant market implications and therefore aren't something that can be announced within the next month or two.

Tougher policies are reinforcing a preference for what many describe as a "one-shot housing bet." With high-paying jobs and daily life increasingly concentrated in the capital, housing decisions are blending the need for shelter with investment logic - intensifying the pull toward Seoul rather than diverting it.

South Korea said it will accelerate housing supply in the Greater Seoul area as part of a broader plan to break ground on more than 1.35 million homes nationwide over five years through 2030. The government will fast-track construction of about 60,000 homes as early as 2027, focusing on projects targeting younger households and newlyweds, including public-led redevelopment and rental housing on underused urban land.

Seoul's dense transit network, elite universities and density of high-paying jobs continue to draw people from across the country. As careers, social networks and opportunities cluster in the capital, many see little realistic alternative to staying and buying in Seoul.

"If my job weren't in Seoul, I might have chosen a different path," said Jun Lee, who was born and raised in the city and has lived there his entire life. "But everything - work, life, relationships - is here."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)