Presale prices for new apartments in the greater Seoul area have risen more than 20% in a year, pushing owner-occupier buyers away from the traditionally favored 84-square-meter layout and toward smaller, more affordable units.
Ham Young-jin, head of the real estate research lab at Woori Bank (000030), analyzed apartment subscription data from the Korea Real Estate Board's Cheongyak Home system for the January-September periods of last year and this year. In Seoul, 116,305 of the 145,736 total applications, or 79.8%, went to units of 60 square meters or less. That compares with 60.6% in the same period a year earlier, a gain of 19.2 percentage points. Applications for units between 60 and 85 square meters — the size range often called Korea's "national size" (84 square meters) — fell to 11.5%, or 16,799 applications, from 35.5%, or 98,088 applications, a drop of 23.9 percentage points.
Gyeonggi Province showed a similar pattern. Applications for units of 60 square meters or less rose to 33.6% in 2026 from 21.0% in 2025, up 12.6 percentage points, while applications for units between 60 and 85 square meters fell to 56.6% from 74.3%, down 17.6 percentage points.
Analysts tie the shift to this year's sharp increase in presale prices for new apartments. According to Cheongyak Home data, the average presale price for new apartments in the greater Seoul area rose 22.2% to 26.54 million won per 3.3 square meters from 21.71 million won during the first nine months of this year. The increases varied by size. In Seoul, presale prices for units between 60 and 85 square meters jumped 23.9% to 57.61 million won per 3.3 square meters from 46.48 million won, while prices for units of 60 square meters or less edged down 0.4% to 58.18 million won from 58.39 million won.
With lending curbs on high-priced apartments still in place, the lower total price tag on smaller units has also steered owner-occupier buyers in that direction. "Rising presale prices, driven by higher construction costs, are affecting the size choices apartment applicants make," Ham said. "As the total presale price burden has grown and lending rules have narrowed the range of options, buyers who need a home to live in are giving up on the so-called national size and applying down to smaller apartments."