Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Busan
SUMMARY
Busan property prices are not rising citywide right now: the latest official apartment index has fallen for three straight weeks, even though a handful of stronger districts and individual complexes are still edging higher.
The biggest feature of the market is the gap inside Busan. Busanjin-gu, Nam-gu, Haeundae-gu and Yeonje-gu were still rising in the latest week, while Gangseo-gu, Geumjeong-gu, Saha-gu and Yeongdo-gu were falling much faster.
The rebound that started in late 2025 was real, but it never turned into a broad boom. Busan managed 19 consecutive weeks of gains, yet the increases became smaller and narrower before the citywide index slipped back into negative territory.
Transactions have recovered much more convincingly than prices. Apartment sales activity is far above the worst months of the downturn, but only about half of the sampled complexes were rising, which suggests liquidity came back before sellers regained real pricing power.
Busan is also still far below its previous cycle peak. A long-running Korea Real Estate Board index leaves the city roughly 18% below its old high, meaning the recent rebound recovered only a small part of the 2023-2024 correction.
Haeundae shows why Busan can still feel expensive despite the weak city average. Scarce waterfront towers and newer branded apartments can command very high prices, while ordinary older apartments elsewhere in the same district trade in a completely different market.
Rents are currently stronger than sale prices. Busan jeonse prices are rising across far more districts than apartment sale prices, which gives the market some support even while buyers remain cautious about committing at today's financing costs.
Busan can have more than 8,000 unsold homes and still feel short of desirable new apartments. The unsold stock is concentrated in particular districts and projects, while much of the city's existing apartment stock is old and buyers remain selective about location, product quality and price.
Higher mortgage rates are making that selectivity worse. With the policy rate at 3.00% and newly issued household mortgage rates around 4.48%, buyers have less reason to stretch when the citywide price index is flat or falling.
The next upward move, if it comes, is more likely to start in a narrow group of newer apartments, redevelopment areas and strong eastern or central districts than across Busan all at once. For now, the clean description is a selective market with strong rents, better transaction activity and weak citywide price momentum.
Thinking of buying real estate in Busan?
Acquiring property in a different country is a complex task. Don't fall into common traps – grab our guide and make better decisions.
Are property prices in Busan still rising?
Busan property prices have stopped rising across the city for now, with the latest official apartment index falling for three straight weeks after the recovery lost momentum.
According to the Korea Real Estate Board's latest weekly apartment data, Busan prices fell 0.01%, then 0.02%, then another 0.02%. The latest decline came while apartment prices nationwide rose 0.09%, so Busan is currently moving against the national direction rather than simply following a weak Korean housing market.
The year still looks slightly positive because Busan apartment prices remain 0.19% higher year to date. That figure mostly tells us where the market came from, though. The more useful observation today is that only four of Busan's 16 districts and counties rose in the latest week, while nine fell and three were flat.
The earlier rebound was real. It just never developed into a strong citywide boom. Busan has now entered a much more selective phase where a good apartment in the right neighborhood can keep appreciating even as the city average slips.
| Busan apartment measure | Earlier direction | Latest reading | What it tells us now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly sale prices | Rising for months | -0.02% | Citywide momentum has turned negative |
| Previous week | — | -0.02% | Weakness has continued |
| Week before that | — | -0.01% | Three consecutive declines |
| Year-to-date prices | — | +0.19% | Busan is still slightly higher for the year |
| Nationwide latest week | — | +0.09% | Busan is currently underperforming Korea |
Why can Busan property prices feel strong even when the city is falling?
Busan property prices can look surprisingly strong from street level because the gap between winning and losing neighborhoods is currently huge.
The latest Korea Real Estate Board figures show Busanjin-gu up 0.05%, Nam-gu up 0.02%, and Haeundae-gu and Yeonje-gu up 0.01%. During the same week, Gangseo-gu fell 0.16%, Geumjeong-gu 0.10%, Saha-gu 0.08% and Yeongdo-gu 0.07%.
That puts a 0.21-percentage-point gap between Busanjin and Gangseo in a single week. For a market where most weekly movements are measured in hundredths of a percentage point, that is a large spread.
The differences become even bigger once we compare individual apartments. Waterfront towers, newer branded complexes and redevelopment locations in eastern Busan can trade at several billion won while ordinary apartments elsewhere struggle to hold previous prices.
A buyer following Haeundae transactions can come away convinced that Busan is still rising, while an owner in Gangseo or Saha sees the opposite. Right now, the district and even the apartment complex tell us more than the Busan average alone.
Don't buy the wrong property, in the wrong area of Busan
Buying real estate is a significant investment. Don't rely solely on your intuition. Gather the right information to make the best decision.
Was Busan's property rebound actually strong?
Busan's property rebound was genuine, but it was never strong enough to justify calling it a new boom.
The Korea Real Estate Board recorded 19 consecutive weeks of apartment-price increases during the recovery that began in late 2025. That was an important turnaround after years of weakness. Busan apartments had fallen 8.73% during 2023 and another 2.82% during 2024.
The pace then faded. Weekly changes moved toward 0.00%, +0.01% and -0.01% instead of accelerating further. By the time the latest three declines arrived, Busan had already spent months losing momentum.
The 19-week streak sounds stronger than the market underneath it. A powerful new property cycle normally broadens as it develops: more neighborhoods join, price increases become easier to see, and buyers compete more aggressively. Busan went the other way. The rebound narrowed before the citywide index eventually turned negative.
So we would still call what happened a recovery. Calling it a new bull market goes too far.
Are real Busan apartment sales still improving?
Busan apartment trading has recovered sharply from the slump, although those extra transactions are no longer pushing most apartment complexes higher.
Ministry of Land transaction data show how far liquidity has come back. One recent twelve-month aggregation counted roughly 40,550 Busan apartment transactions, compared with 31,313 during the previous twelve months. That works out to an increase of about 29.5%.
Monthly activity has also moved well above the worst points of the downturn. Busan recorded fewer than 1,700 apartment sales in some weak months of the previous slump; stronger recent months have exceeded 4,000.
Yet more transactions do not automatically mean rising prices. A separate recent sample covering 4,751 transactions across 363 apartment complexes found an average price movement of only around +0.2%, with just 48% of complexes rising.
That is the odd bit: liquidity has recovered faster than pricing power. Buyers have returned and sellers are finding each other again, but broad price growth is still weak.
Get to know the market before buying a property in Busan
Better information leads to better decisions. Get all the data you need before investing a large amount of money.
Which parts of Busan still have rising property prices?
Busan property prices are currently holding up best in parts of Busanjin, Nam-gu, Haeundae and Yeonje, while several outer and weaker districts are moving clearly lower.
The latest Korea Real Estate Board reading puts Busanjin-gu at +0.05%, the strongest increase in the city. Nam-gu followed at +0.02%, while Haeundae-gu and Yeonje-gu each gained 0.01%.
Elsewhere, the numbers are harder to dismiss as random noise. Gangseo-gu fell 0.16%, Geumjeong-gu 0.10%, Saha-gu 0.08% and Yeongdo-gu 0.07%. Suyeong-gu, one of Busan's better-known expensive districts, also slipped 0.01%.
Only four of the city's 16 districts and counties rose. That breadth is too weak for us to describe Busan as a rising property market today.
| District | Latest weekly apartment-price change | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Busanjin-gu | +0.05% | Rising |
| Nam-gu | +0.02% | Rising |
| Haeundae-gu | +0.01% | Slightly rising |
| Yeonje-gu | +0.01% | Slightly rising |
| Dongnae-gu | 0.00% | Flat |
| Suyeong-gu | -0.01% | Slightly falling |
| Gangseo-gu | -0.16% | Falling quickly |
| Geumjeong-gu | -0.10% | Falling |
| Saha-gu | -0.08% | Falling |
| Yeongdo-gu | -0.07% | Falling |
How far are Busan property prices from their old peak?
Busan apartment prices are still roughly 18% below their previous citywide peak on a long-running Korea Real Estate Board index, so today's market remains well short of its former high.
On the index with November 2017 set at 100, Busan reached roughly 125.7 around the previous peak and has recently been around 103.3. That leaves a decline of about 17.8%.
At 103.3, the index would need to rise around 22% to get back to 125.7. A few months of small weekly gains were never going to close that gap.
Record-looking transactions in individual luxury developments can therefore give a misleading impression of the broader cycle. Busan can produce expensive sales in Haeundae or Nam-gu while hundreds of thousands of ordinary apartments remain far below their 2021 valuations.
| Period | Busan apartment-price index or change | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Previous peak | ~125.7 | High point of the last cycle |
| 2023 | -8.73% | Major correction |
| 2024 | -2.82% | Prices kept falling |
| Recent index level | ~103.3 | Only part of the decline has been recovered |
| Distance from peak | ~-17.8% | Citywide prices remain far below the old high |
Buying real estate in Busan can be risky
An increasing number of foreign investors are showing interest. However, 90% of them will make mistakes. Avoid the pitfalls with our comprehensive guide.
Are Haeundae property prices still rising?
Haeundae property prices are holding up better than most of Busan, although the latest 0.01% weekly increase is far too small to call Haeundae a booming market.
Recent Ministry of Land transaction records still show serious money moving through the district. Large units at LCT have traded around KRW 2.9 billion, while large Haeundae I'Park transactions have approached KRW 3 billion. Premium waterfront apartments elsewhere in eastern Busan can reach even higher levels.
Those sales confirm that wealthy buyers are still paying up for scarce waterfront stock and recognized luxury developments. They say much less about an ordinary 20-year-old apartment several kilometers away.
Price dispersion inside Haeundae is enormous. Apartments of broadly similar floor area can sell for a few hundred million won in cheaper locations and well above KRW 1 billion in sought-after parts of U-dong, before we even reach the luxury towers.
We therefore see Haeundae as one of Busan's stronger markets currently, particularly for newer, branded, waterfront or scarce apartments. A +0.01% district average also tells us buyers have become picky enough to stop lifting everything around them.
Is the latest fall in Busan property prices serious?
Busan's three-week property-price decline is worth taking seriously as a change in direction, but the size of the fall is still tiny.
The latest sequence is -0.01%, -0.02% and -0.02%. Compounded, that amounts to roughly -0.05%. Nobody should confuse a fall of five hundredths of a percent with a property crash.
What makes the change interesting is how it developed. Busan first moved from repeated gains into near-zero weekly changes. Prices then slipped slightly, and the number of declining districts increased. The latest reading now has nine districts falling against only four rising.
The recovery has clearly lost breadth. That still does not look like another 2023-style correction.
For a genuinely bearish shift, we would want to see the weakness last much longer, transaction volumes retreat significantly, and currently resilient districts such as Haeundae, Nam-gu and Busanjin join the decline. Those conditions are not all present today.
Don't lose money on your property in Busan
100% of people who have lost money there have spent less than 1 hour researching the market. We have reviewed everything there is to know. Grab our guide now.
Why are Busan rents rising when property prices are falling?
Busan apartment rents are much stronger than sale prices right now, with jeonse prices up 2.88% year to date while sale prices have gained only 0.19%.
The latest weekly difference is also clear. According to the Korea Real Estate Board, Busan apartment sale prices fell 0.02% while jeonse prices rose 0.06%.
Rental strength is much broader geographically. Twelve of Busan's 16 districts recorded higher jeonse prices in the latest week, compared with only four districts showing higher sale prices. Haeundae jeonse rose 0.15% and Buk-gu 0.14%, while Nam-gu and Yeonje-gu gained 0.07%.
The simplest explanation is that housing demand has not disappeared. Many households still need somewhere to live but are reluctant to buy while mortgages are expensive and resale prices look uncertain. More of that demand stays in the rental market.
Rising rents give sale prices some support. If jeonse keeps getting more expensive while sale prices stay flat, buying gradually looks less expensive relative to renting. Financing costs are delaying that response for now.
| Busan apartment measure | Sale market | Jeonse market |
|---|---|---|
| Latest weekly change | -0.02% | +0.06% |
| Year-to-date change | +0.19% | +2.88% |
| Districts rising in latest week | 4 of 16 | 12 of 16 |
| Haeundae latest change | +0.01% | +0.15% |
| Current picture | Weak | Strong |
Is Busan really short of new apartments if thousands are still unsold?
Busan is heading into a period of fewer new apartments while still carrying more than 8,000 unsold homes, and both facts can be true because the city has a serious location-and-product mismatch.
Busan Metropolitan City counted 8,071 unsold apartments at the end of the latest reported quarter, marking a third straight month above 8,000. More importantly, 3,292 were already completed and still unsold. Completed unsold stock is harder to dismiss because the homes physically exist and buyers still have not taken them.
The inventory is concentrated. Busanjin-gu alone had 919 completed unsold units, Dong-gu 553 and Saha-gu 490. Haeundae had only 93 and Nam-gu just 26.
At the same time, several housing trackers expect Busan apartment completions to fall sharply. One estimate puts annual completions around 14,100 homes, roughly 15% below the previous year; Real Estate R114 has produced an even lower estimate of around 11,300. Both sit below the roughly 17,000 homes often cited locally as a normal annual requirement.
Busan also has almost 495,000 apartments more than 20 years old, around 57% of its private apartment stock according to Real Estate R114 data.
Put together, the shortage story is fairly specific. Busan does not simply need more apartments. Buyers are chasing a narrower pool of newer homes in the places they actually want, while unwanted or badly priced inventory can remain unsold elsewhere.
| Busan housing-supply measure | Approximate level | What we learn from it |
|---|---|---|
| Total unsold apartments | 8,071 | Inventory remains high |
| Completed unsold apartments | 3,292 | A large amount of finished stock still lacks buyers |
| One annual completion forecast | ~14,100 | New supply is falling |
| Real Estate R114 completion estimate | ~11,300 | Alternative dataset points in the same direction |
| Apartments over 20 years old | ~495,000 | Much of Busan's existing stock is old |
| Share over 20 years old | ~57% | Good new apartments can remain scarce despite unsold stock |
Get the full checklist for your due diligence in Busan
Don't repeat the same mistakes others have made before you. Make sure everything is in order before signing your sales contract.
Are higher mortgage rates killing the Busan property rebound?
Higher mortgage rates are making a broad Busan property rebound much harder, especially now that the Bank of Korea has raised its base rate to 3.00%.
The timing is rough for buyers. The Bank of Korea raised its policy rate from 2.50% to 2.75% and then to 3.00% at two consecutive meetings, the first back-to-back increases in years. Before the second hike was even reflected fully in bank pricing, the average interest rate on newly issued household mortgages had already climbed to 4.48%.
That 4.48% figure was the highest in two years and eight months and marked a third consecutive monthly increase. Fixed-rate mortgage pricing had been rising for even longer.
For a KRW 400 million, 30-year amortizing mortgage, a rate around 4.5% produces a monthly payment of roughly KRW 2.0 million. At 3.5%, the payment is closer to KRW 1.8 million. The extra KRW 200,000-plus every month changes what households can bid for an apartment.
Busan is especially sensitive to that squeeze because prices are not currently running away from buyers. There is little urgency to stretch for a purchase when the citywide index is slipping and thousands of unsold homes remain available.
High rates help explain why healthier transaction volumes and rapidly rising rents have still failed to restart broad price growth.
Does Busan's shrinking population mean property prices cannot rise?
Busan's shrinking population makes another citywide property boom harder, but it does not stop good neighborhoods and scarce apartments from getting more expensive.
Busan's population is now around 3.23 million according to the city's recent demographic reporting, about 20,000 fewer than a year earlier. The city also continues to record negative net domestic migration, while roughly one quarter of residents are already elderly.
Those numbers weaken the long-term case for indiscriminate housing appreciation. A city losing residents cannot keep adding ordinary housing forever and assume demand will absorb it at higher prices.
Housing demand still depends on more than the raw population count, though. The number of households can rise as household size falls, people can leave old buildings for new ones, and redevelopment can shift demand toward a much smaller group of desirable properties.
Busan's aging housing stock makes that last point particularly relevant. With more than half of private apartments over 20 years old, demographic decline can coexist with fierce competition for newer apartments in Haeundae, Nam-gu, Dongnae or other sought-after locations.
That is probably the structure to expect going forward: demographics holding back the average market while scarcity supports a smaller group of winners.
Don't sign a document you don't understand in Busan
Buying a property over there? We have reviewed all the documents you need to know. Stay out of trouble - grab our comprehensive guide.
Could lower apartment supply push Busan property prices up again?
Lower new-apartment supply could restart price growth in parts of Busan, but current demand is too uneven for us to expect a citywide supply squeeze anytime soon.
Busan has reacted strongly to low supply before. During an earlier period of unusually weak apartment completions, citywide prices rose by more than 35% cumulatively before much heavier construction coincided with a major slowdown. We should not treat that relationship as proof that supply alone controlled prices, but Busan clearly has a history of reacting when desirable inventory gets tight.
The next few years are shaping up differently from the heavy-supply period that followed the last boom. Completion forecasts are dropping, much of the existing apartment stock is aging, and rents are already climbing faster than sale prices.
Against that, the city still carries thousands of unsold apartments, the population is falling, and borrowing costs have jumped. Those forces make it difficult for simple scarcity to lift every district together.
Lower supply should matter first in places where buyers already compete: newer apartments, redevelopment areas, waterfront locations and neighborhoods with limited incoming construction. It could eventually pull the wider Busan index higher, but that process has barely started.
So, are property prices in Busan still rising?
No, Busan property prices are currently no longer rising as a citywide market, even though several desirable neighborhoods and apartment complexes are still getting more expensive.
The evidence has become quite clear. As seen above, the Korea Real Estate Board now shows three consecutive weekly declines, with the latest two both at -0.02%. Nine of Busan's 16 districts are falling and only four are rising. A market with that breadth cannot reasonably be described as still going up overall.
The bearish case should not be exaggerated either. Busan remains slightly positive for the year, apartment transactions have recovered strongly from the slump, jeonse prices are rising much faster than sale prices, and future apartment completions are falling. Prime parts of Haeundae, Nam-gu and Busanjin continue to hold up much better than the city average.
Our read today is that Busan's broad rebound has ended and a much more selective market has replaced it. Good new apartments in strong locations can still rise. Old, peripheral or badly priced stock has far less support.
For the phrase "Busan property prices are rising" to become accurate again, we would want to see gains spread beyond four districts, persist for more than a few weeks, and start appearing alongside stronger prices rather than transaction volume alone. For now, Busan as a whole is no longer rising.
Get fresh and reliable information about the market in Busan
Don't base significant investment decisions on outdated data. Get updated and accurate information.
OUR METHODOLOGY
"Are property prices in Busan still rising?" sounds like a simple question, but the answer changes depending on what part of the market we look at and which signal we prioritize. We therefore broke the question into current price direction, district breadth, transaction activity, rental pressure, unsold inventory and incoming supply, financing conditions, and longer-term demand.
We did not give every indicator the same weight. The latest Korea Real Estate Board apartment-price direction and the number of Busan districts rising or falling carried the most weight because they answer the question most directly. The other indicators were used to test whether that price movement was being reinforced or contradicted elsewhere in the market.
We used Korea Real Estate Board weekly data to follow the move from the earlier recovery into the latest declines, and its R-ONE statistics portal for longer historical context, including the earlier peak, the 2023-2024 correction and the broader transaction series.
Ministry of Land transaction records were used separately from the price indices. That distinction is important here: more apartment transactions can show that liquidity has returned without proving that prices are rising, while individual Haeundae luxury sales can show strength in a narrow segment without describing Busan as a whole.
Jeonse prices, unsold inventory, expected completions and the age of Busan's apartment stock were used as supporting market context. They help explain why sale prices can be weak at the same time as rents are rising, and why a city can carry thousands of unsold homes while still having limited supply of the newer apartments buyers actually want.
Financing conditions were treated as a demand constraint rather than a direct price forecast. The Bank of Korea's policy-rate history and bank lending-rate data were used to frame how much borrowing conditions have changed, while the KRW 400 million mortgage example is only an illustrative amortization calculation.
Population decline and aging were included as longer-term demand factors, not as a rule that Busan prices must fall. Household formation, redevelopment and moves from older apartments into newer stock can still produce strong local markets inside a shrinking city.
We prioritized official and first-hand sources where possible. Key sources include the Korea Real Estate Board's latest weekly apartment-price release, the previous weekly release, the August 10 weekly release, the July 27 weekly release, the Korea Real Estate Board's housing-price methodology, the R-ONE real-estate statistics portal, and MOLIT's Real Estate Transaction Price Disclosure System.
For inventory, local market conditions, demographics and financing, the main sources include Busan Metropolitan City's June 2026 unsold-housing statistics, its May 2026 unsold-housing statistics, its April 2026 unsold-housing statistics, the city's 2026 real-estate market trends report, Busan's July 2026 population-policy briefing, the Bank of Korea's official policy-rate history, the August 27, 2026 monetary-policy decision, and the Bank of Korea's July 2026 weighted-average bank interest-rate release.
Get to know the market before buying a property in Busan
Better information leads to better decisions. Get all the data you need before investing a large amount of money.
Related blog posts
- Is Busan a good place to live as an expat?
- What are the biggest risks when buying property in Busan?
- Is Busan property becoming oversupplied?
- Is buying property to rent out in Busan still worth it?
