October’s Prime Residential Transactions in Seoul: The Summer Records End — and the Market Divides

Monthly Transaction Notes · October 2026

A market that was climbing has begun to catch its breath.

Since June I have been organizing MOLIT's real transaction filings every month. Set the five months side by side, and October reads differently from the ones before it. Through the summer, the high end of the market set a new record with almost every deal. In October, prices at the most expensive complexes stopped rising, and some began trading below their highs. My reading, stated up front: Seoul's high-end housing market is moving out of its rising phase and into a period of sideways movement at an elevated level.

June to September: a summer of records

The summer moved in one direction. In July, two units of 182.95 m² at Shin Hyundai 12th in Apgujeong sold for ₩11.25 billion each, and a 183.41 m² unit at Shin Hyundai 11th sold for ₩10.5 billion. In Banpo, Raemian One Bailey's 116.95 m² went from ₩9.0 billion in July to ₩9.4 billion in September. Prices stayed high into September, when a 222.76 m² unit at Raemian Firstige traded at ₩8.5 billion. It was a period in which each new figure took the previous record as its starting point.

October: what changed from the month before

October's largest deals were still striking. A 273.94 m² unit at Nine One Hannam sold for ₩26.2 billion, a detached house on UN Village-gil for ₩22.5 billion, and a 101.97 m² unit at Raemian One Bailey for ₩7.8 billion. But compare the same complexes and the same sizes against September or the summer, and the market splits three ways.

October at a glance · same complex, same size

Asset Earlier October Change
Rising
Nine One Hannam
273.94 m², 1F		 ₩25.0B
Jun		 ₩26.2B +4.8%
Holding
Hannam The Hill
59.70 m²		 ₩3.85B
Jun		 ₩3.84B Flat
Raemian Firstige
84.93 m²		 ₩4.9–4.95B
Sep		 ₩4.95B Flat
Lower
Shin Hyundai 9th
152 m²		 ₩7.5B
Sep		 ₩6.9B −8%
Shin Hyundai 11th
183.41 m²		 ₩10.5B
Jul		 ₩9.2–9.3B −11 to −12%
Shin Hyundai 12th
182.95 m²		 ₩11.25B
Jul		 ₩8.8–9.2B −18 to −22%

Source: MOLIT real transaction filings, contracts June–October 2026. Same complex and exclusive area; floors may differ. Where several deals occurred, the range is shown.

Apgujeong is where prices came down. At Shin Hyundai 9th, a 152 m² unit sold for ₩6.9 billion in October, about 8% below the ₩7.5 billion recorded in September. Large units at Shin Hyundai 12th traded at ₩8.8 billion and ₩9.2 billion, roughly ₩2 billion below July's ₩11.25 billion. Shin Hyundai 11th came down from ₩10.5 billion in July to ₩9.2–9.3 billion. Within October itself, Shin Hyundai 12th moved back up from ₩8.8 billion to ₩9.2 billion, which looks like a floor being tested, but it remains well short of the summer.

Banpo stood still. An 84 m² unit at Raemian Firstige traded at ₩4.9–4.95 billion in September and ₩4.95 billion in October. Raemian One Bailey still produced deals in the high ₩7 billion range, but no new record of the kind September's ₩9.4 billion had set.

Hannam is where prices rose. The 273.94 m² ground-floor unit at Nine One Hannam went from ₩25.0 billion in June to ₩26.2 billion in October, up 4.8%. At this price level, though, there are only a handful of deals a year, and the buyers are almost entirely cash buyers who barely rely on loans. It is better read as a sign that ultra-prime assets are still finding their price than as the temperature of the wider market. In the same neighborhood, a small unit at Hannam The Hill traded at ₩3.85 billion in June and ₩3.84 billion in October, essentially unchanged.

The wider indicators point the same way

What the transaction filings show lines up with the market indicators. In the Korea Real Estate Board's weekly figures for the fourth week of October, Seoul apartment prices rose 0.13% overall, while Gangnam fell 0.31%, Seocho 0.32% and Songpa 0.13%. The gains are being led by relatively lower-priced districts such as Seongbuk, Seodaemun, Mapo and Gangseo. Seoul apartment sales in September came to 3,288, down 62% from a year earlier. For homes above ₩2.5 billion, mortgage lending is capped at ₩200 million, so the high end of the market now moves almost entirely on cash. A widening gap between what buyers will pay and what sellers will accept, with fewer deals in between, is the classic shape of a stalling market.

Quiet Property's outlook: a pause, and divergence

Over the next few months, at least through the end of the year, I think Seoul's high-end housing market is likely to stay in a holding pattern, neither rising sharply nor falling hard.

The reasons it will struggle to go higher are clear. With lending blocked, it is hard for new buyers to enter, and the record prices of the summer have already pulled a great deal of expectation forward. It follows that the places where expectation was priced in first, such as the large redevelopment units of Apgujeong, are the first to correct.

There are also reasons it should not slide far. Many owners of high-end homes have no pressing reason to sell, and supply in core locations remains short. Seoul jeonse prices, up more than 8% this year, are another source of support beneath sale prices.

So the defining feature of the next phase is likely to be divergence rather than direction. Ultra-prime complexes in Hannam and Banpo's flagship new builds are likely to hold their prices even if deals are sparse. Large Apgujeong units that carried heavy redevelopment expectations, and older complexes more broadly, may keep trading below their summer highs. It will be a market in which different complexes produce different numbers, even within Gangnam, even within the same 84 m² size.

This outlook may of course be wrong. A change in interest rates or policy can shift the picture at any time. That is why I will keep building the same record next month and check it against what happens. The first things to watch are whether Apgujeong continues to trade at around ₩9 billion, and whether Banpo's 84 m² units hold the ₩5 billion line.

A pause is not a decline. Given the path Seoul's high-end market has travelled over the past few years, this stillness may turn out to be the time that steadies its next step. I will keep watching, quietly and steadily.

Note: Based on MOLIT's Real Transaction Price Disclosure System, contracts dated June–October 2026; October contracts retrieved November 2, so late-October contracts may still be filed. Market indicators cite the Korea Real Estate Board's weekly statistics and press reports. All figures in Korean won.

Quiet Property · Jin Kong
jin@quietproperty.kr
Location: Seoul, South Korea

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