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SUMMARY
Apartments in Seoul are extremely expensive right now, but the most useful buyer benchmark is closer to ₩900 million to ₩1.3 billion than the roughly ₩1.6 billion headline average.
The biggest reason the headline number feels disconnected from what buyers actually pay is the gap between stock values and completed transactions. KB’s average value is around ₩1.61 billion, while the median of recent completed sales is closer to ₩916 million.
The transaction distribution is more reassuring than the average, at least at first glance: 55.5% of recent apartment sales were below ₩1 billion and 77.2% below ₩1.5 billion. Seoul is expensive, but the market is not made up entirely of billion-won-plus deals.
Location changes the answer far more than apartment size alone. Recent district medians run from roughly ₩550 million in Dobong to around ₩2.7 billion in Gangnam, with price per square meter showing a similarly wide gap.
A standard 84㎡ family apartment can therefore cost under ₩1 billion in an outer district and more than ₩3 billion in Gangnam. Asking for one citywide price for an 84㎡ unit is not especially useful without specifying the district.
New apartments are a separate, much more expensive market. Recent Seoul presale data put average 84㎡ new units above ₩2.1 billion, which is more than double the median of recent completed resale transactions.
The cheaper end of Seoul is still real, but it is getting squeezed. Dobong, Nowon, Jungnang and other lower-priced districts remain accessible relative to central Seoul, yet several of them are currently posting some of the strongest weekly gains.
Gangnam remains in a different price league, but it is not leading the current upswing. Recent weekly data show Gangnam and Seocho weakening while Seongbuk, Jungnang, Nowon, Gangseo and other more affordable districts rise faster.
Affordability is the harder problem than the headline price itself. Even apartments in Seoul’s cheaper half remain expensive relative to ordinary household incomes, so savings, existing property equity, family support and access to credit increasingly determine who can buy.
The practical budget ladder is now quite clear: roughly ₩500 million to ₩700 million buys into the cheapest outer districts, around ₩1 billion opens a meaningful part of Seoul, ₩1.5 billion gives much broader choice, and ₩2 billion-plus is normal territory in several premium areas.
The market is therefore best understood as several apartment markets stacked on top of one another. Seoul still has sub-₩1 billion entry points, but the compromises on age, size, station access and neighborhood quality become sharper as prices rise in the districts buyers once used as the affordable alternative.
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How much does a Seoul apartment actually cost right now?
A realistic starting point for a Seoul apartment today is roughly ₩900 million to ₩1.3 billion, depending on whether we look at homes that actually sold or estimated values across the whole market.
KB Real Estate currently puts the average Seoul apartment value at about ₩1.61 billion and the median at roughly ₩1.29 billion. Actual transactions tell a cheaper story. An analysis of Ministry of Land transaction records found a median sale price of ₩916 million and an average of about ₩1.17 billion across more than 37,000 recent Seoul deals.
The transaction distribution is even more useful for a buyer. About 55.5% of those apartments sold below ₩1 billion, and 77.2% sold below ₩1.5 billion. Only 11.9% crossed ₩2 billion.
So when someone says the “average Seoul apartment” costs more than ₩1.6 billion, the number is legitimate, but it describes the value of Seoul’s apartment stock better than the budget of a typical recent buyer.
| Seoul apartment measure | Current price | What it measures | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| KB average value | ~₩1.61bn | Estimated value across Seoul apartment stock | Headline market level |
| KB median value | ~₩1.29bn | Middle apartment in KB sample | Typical stock value |
| Recent transaction average | ~₩1.17bn | Apartments that actually sold | Buyer activity |
| Recent transaction median | ~₩916m | Middle completed deal | Typical recent purchase |
| Deals below ₩1bn | 55.5% | Share of completed sales | Entry-budget reality |
Why is Seoul’s average apartment price so much higher than what people usually pay?
Seoul’s average apartment price gets pulled up sharply by a small number of very expensive deals.
Recent transaction data show a gap of roughly ₩250 million between Seoul’s average transaction price and its median. The explanation becomes obvious once we look at the top end: apartments above ₩3 billion represented only 4.6% of transactions.
Those luxury deals are also tightly concentrated. Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa and Yongsan accounted for almost all of Seoul’s ₩3 billion-plus transactions in the dataset.
Meanwhile, high-volume districts are much cheaper. Nowon alone recorded more than 4,400 transactions, with prices clustering far below Gangnam levels. Dobong, Guro, Gangbuk and Jungnang show a similar pattern.
A few thousand premium deals can therefore move Seoul’s average a lot more than their share of transactions suggests.
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Can you still buy a Seoul apartment for under ₩1 billion?
Yes, ₩1 billion still buys plenty of Seoul apartments today, although buyers usually have to compromise on location, age, size or all three.
The simplest proof is the transaction data: 55.5% of recent Seoul apartment sales came in below ₩1 billion.
Recent district medians show where those apartments are. Dobong has been around ₩550 million, Nowon around ₩600 million to ₩640 million, Jungnang around ₩670 million, Guro around ₩730 million and Eunpyeong around ₩870 million.
The trade-off becomes much tougher when the target is a modern 84㎡ family apartment close to a good subway station. In sought-after parts of Seoul, ₩1 billion can disappear very quickly.
Still, describing Seoul as a city where every apartment costs well above ₩1 billion would simply be wrong.
| District | Recent median transaction price | Approx. price per m² | Price position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dobong | ~₩550m | ~₩8.2m | Among cheapest |
| Nowon | ~₩640m | ~₩10.7m | Affordable high-volume market |
| Jungnang | ~₩670m | ~₩9.8m | Lower-price northeast |
| Guro | ~₩730m | ~₩10.1m | Lower-price southwest |
| Eunpyeong | ~₩870m | ~₩11.1m | Below Seoul median |
| Gwanak | ~₩890m | ~₩11.8m | Around ₩1bn territory |
How much does an 84㎡ family apartment cost in Seoul now?
A standard 84㎡ Seoul apartment can cost anywhere from below ₩1 billion to well above ₩3 billion, with location doing most of the work.
Using recent district prices per square meter as a rough guide, 84㎡ translates to around ₩900 million in Nowon, roughly ₩1.1 billion in Gangseo, about ₩1.55 billion in Mapo, close to ₩2 billion in Songpa or Seongdong and more than ₩3 billion in Gangnam.
Those are rough equivalents rather than valuations of specific homes. A 25-year-old apartment beside a redevelopment site can sell very differently from a newer building on the next street.
New apartments sit even higher. Recent Korea Real Estate Board presale data put the average Seoul presale price for an 84㎡ unit above ₩2.1 billion. Premium projects pushed that figure up, but it still shows how expensive new family-sized supply has become.
For most buyers, asking “How much is an 84㎡ apartment in Seoul?” only becomes useful once the district is specified.
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How much do Seoul apartment prices change from one district to another?
Seoul apartment prices can vary by roughly five times between cheaper outer districts and Gangnam.
Recent transaction data put the Gangnam median around ₩2.7 billion, compared with roughly ₩550 million in Dobong. Seocho is also well above ₩2 billion, while Yongsan approaches that level and Songpa sits around ₩1.8 billion.
Move to the middle of the city’s price ladder and Mapo, Seongdong, Dongjak and Gangdong become more relevant. Farther out, Gangseo, Gwanak, Guro, Jungnang, Nowon and Dobong still offer much lower entry prices.
Price per square meter tells the same story without the distortion of apartment size. Gangnam has recently been close to ₩37 million per m², versus roughly ₩8 million in Dobong.
That spread is so large that “Seoul apartment prices” should almost always be read as several markets rather than one.
| District | Recent median sale price | Recent price per m² | Approx. multiple vs Dobong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gangnam | ~₩2.7bn | ~₩36.8m | 4.9× |
| Seocho | ~₩2.5bn | ~₩25.6m | 4.5× |
| Yongsan | ~₩2.0bn | ~₩23.4m | 3.6× |
| Songpa | ~₩1.8bn | ~₩24.1m | 3.3× |
| Mapo | ~₩1.5bn | ~₩18.4m | 2.7× |
| Gangseo | ~₩930m | ~₩13.2m | 1.7× |
| Nowon | ~₩640m | ~₩10.7m | 1.2× |
| Dobong | ~₩550m | ~₩8.2m | 1.0× |
Are Gangnam apartments really in a different price league from the rest of Seoul?
Yes, Gangnam apartments sit in a completely different price tier from most of Seoul.
The recent Gangnam transaction median of roughly ₩2.7 billion is more than four times Nowon’s level and close to five times Dobong’s. Prime complexes in Apgujeong, Daechi and other prestigious neighborhoods go considerably higher.
The concentration of top-end deals is striking too. Almost all Seoul transactions above ₩3 billion in the recent dataset came from Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa and Yongsan.
A ₩2 billion budget therefore no longer guarantees luxury in Seoul’s most expensive neighborhoods. In parts of Gangnam, Seocho, Yongsan or Songpa, that amount can simply buy a normal family apartment in a good complex. The true luxury end increasingly starts closer to ₩3 billion and goes far beyond it.
What is changing lately is the direction of prices. According to the latest Korea Real Estate Board release, Gangnam prices fell 0.41% in one week and Seocho fell 0.23%, even while Seoul overall kept rising. The most expensive districts remain extremely expensive, but right now they are weaker than several cheaper parts of the city.
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Is northern Seoul still much cheaper than southern Seoul?
Yes, northern Seoul is still much cheaper overall, although the simple north-versus-south divide misses several expensive neighborhoods.
KB currently puts the average apartment value across Seoul’s districts south of the Han River close to ₩2 billion, while the median across the northern districts has only recently moved past ₩1 billion.
But geography alone can mislead. Guro and Gwanak sit south of the river and remain relatively affordable. Yongsan, Seongdong and Mapo sit north of it and can be extremely expensive.
The more useful pattern is a premium belt running through Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa, then into Yongsan, Seongdong and parts of Mapo, Dongjak and Yeongdeungpo.
Cheaper northern districts are also moving quickly these days. The latest Korea Real Estate Board data showed Seongbuk up 0.54% in one week, Jungnang up around 0.52% and Nowon around 0.50%.
So northern Seoul remains cheaper, but some of the strongest current price pressure is happening there.
Are Seoul apartment prices still rising now?
Yes, Seoul apartment prices are still rising overall today, although the strongest gains have shifted away from Gangnam.
The latest Korea Real Estate Board reading showed Seoul apartment prices rising 0.22% week over week. The previous two readings were also positive, so there is no citywide correction at the moment.
The interesting part is where the growth now comes from. Seongbuk, Jungnang, Nowon, Gangseo, Gwanak and Guro have recently been among the stronger districts, while Gangnam and Seocho have fallen for several consecutive weeks.
SBS highlighted the change with a concrete example: an 84㎡ apartment in Seongbuk that was in the ₩1.2 billion range earlier this year recently moved into the ₩1.5 billion range, an increase of more than ₩300 million.
Current Seoul price growth increasingly looks like a catch-up move in cheaper neighborhoods.
| Area | Latest weekly change | Current direction | What is happening |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seoul overall | +0.22% | Rising | Citywide prices still moving up |
| Seongbuk | +0.54% | Rising quickly | Cheaper area catching up |
| Jungnang | ~+0.52% | Rising quickly | Outer northeast strengthening |
| Nowon | ~+0.50% | Rising quickly | Affordable high-volume market heating up |
| Gangseo | ~+0.45% | Rising | Lower-priced southwest gaining |
| Seocho | -0.23% | Falling | Premium market cooling |
| Gangnam | -0.41% | Falling | High-end correction deepening |
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Have Seoul apartments actually become much more expensive recently?
Yes, Seoul apartment prices have moved materially higher, rather than simply feeling expensive because the city already had a costly reputation.
KB’s average Seoul apartment value crossed roughly ₩1.4 billion around the middle of last year and now sits near ₩1.61 billion. The two figures are not a perfect repeat-sales comparison because the sample changes, but the direction is hard to dispute.
New-apartment pricing has risen even faster. HUG currently puts the average private-apartment presale price in Seoul above ₩62 million per 3.3㎡, more than 40% higher than about two years earlier.
As we saw above, the latest gains are also spreading into neighborhoods that used to provide the cheaper alternatives. That is what makes the current move harder for buyers: price pressure is no longer limited to Seoul’s traditional luxury districts.
Why are new apartments in Seoul so expensive now?
New Seoul apartments are currently far more expensive than the typical resale apartment, especially for standard family sizes.
HUG’s latest private-presale measure puts Seoul above ₩62 million per 3.3㎡, close to the record. Recent presale data also put the 12-month average price for a 59㎡ Seoul apartment above ₩1.5 billion, while 84㎡ units averaged more than ₩2.1 billion.
High-end projects do inflate those averages. Summit The Hill, for example, priced some 84㎡ units around ₩2.9 billion. But the rise has spread beyond Gangnam. New apartments in Seongbuk, Dongjak and other areas have also reached levels that would have looked exceptional only a few years ago.
Building age still changes resale pricing, but location matters more. An older apartment with redevelopment potential in Gangnam can easily cost more than a brand-new apartment in an outer district. Buyers in Seoul often pay for the land, school district, station access and redevelopment prospects as much as for the building itself.
| New-apartment measure | Approx. price | How to read it | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seoul private presales per 3.3㎡ | ₩62m+ | Near-record market level | HUG measure |
| Seoul new 59㎡ average | ~₩1.55bn | Small unit already expensive | 12-month average |
| Seoul new 84㎡ average | ~₩2.14bn | Standard family unit | Premium projects push average higher |
| Summit The Hill 84㎡ | ~₩2.9bn | High-end project | Far above city transaction median |
| Seoul recent transaction median | ~₩916m | Typical completed resale | Useful comparison |
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Are small Seoul apartments still affordable?
Small Seoul apartments cost less in absolute terms, but size alone no longer makes a good-location apartment cheap.
The strongest example comes from new construction. The average presale price for a 59㎡ Seoul apartment recently moved above ₩1.5 billion.
Existing apartments can cost much less, particularly in Nowon, Dobong, Guro or Jungnang. Yet smaller apartments often carry a high price per square meter because first-time buyers, couples and investors compete for the cheapest way into attractive neighborhoods.
That means dropping from 84㎡ to 59㎡ can save hundreds of millions of won while still leaving a buyer above ₩1 billion in a sought-after part of Seoul.
For anyone buying on a tight budget, location usually has more impact than shaving 20 or 25 square meters from the apartment.
How unaffordable are Seoul apartments compared with household incomes?
Seoul apartments are now deeply unaffordable relative to ordinary household incomes.
KB’s mortgage-based price-to-income data put a typical Seoul apartment bought with a KB mortgage at roughly 10 times the borrower household’s annual income. Those buyers already had relatively high incomes, around ₩90 million a year, and were purchasing homes around the ₩900 million range.
The picture is harsher for the broader middle class. Comparing a middle-priced Seoul apartment of roughly ₩1.2 billion with annual household income around ₩58 million gives a ratio above 20 times income.
That gap helps explain why income alone rarely tells us who can buy in Seoul. Existing housing equity, family money, accumulated savings and access to credit all play a major role.
A household earning an ordinary salary can still buy in Seoul, but increasingly the realistic options sit in older apartments, smaller units or cheaper outer districts.
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Are only rich people buying apartments in Seoul now?
No, ordinary buyers are still active in Seoul, but they are increasingly buying farther down the price ladder.
The transaction map makes this clear. Nowon recorded more transactions than any other Seoul district in the large transaction dataset, with more than 4,400 deals. Gangseo, Guro and Seongbuk also posted heavy activity.
Nowon, Dobong and Gangbuk together generated more apartment transactions than Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa combined.
These buyers have not disappeared from Seoul. They have moved toward places where ₩500 million to ₩900 million can still buy something.
That shift also helps explain why outer districts are currently rising so strongly. Demand that cannot stretch to central or premium Seoul keeps moving toward the next affordable neighborhood.
Is Seoul’s luxury market making the whole city look more expensive than it really is?
Yes, Seoul’s luxury market exaggerates the citywide average, but even the cheaper half of Seoul has become expensive.
The difference between KB’s roughly ₩1.61 billion average value and the recent ₩916 million transaction median shows how much premium apartments affect the headline number.
Still, buyers should not conclude that Seoul is secretly cheap once Gangnam is removed. Nowon medians around ₩600 million, Eunpyeong around ₩870 million and other “affordable” Seoul prices remain very high relative to household incomes.
Several cheaper districts are also currently rising faster than Gangnam and Seocho.
Luxury deals distort the average upward, while the broader affordability problem reaches far beyond the luxury market.
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Can you still find Seoul apartments below ₩600 million?
Yes, apartments below ₩600 million still exist in Seoul, but that budget now sits close to the bottom of the mainstream market.
Dobong’s recent district median has been around ₩550 million, while Nowon is roughly around the ₩600 million range. Smaller and older apartments can still trade below those levels in several outer districts.
Choice shrinks quickly once buyers want 84㎡, newer construction, better schools or easy subway access. Even within cheaper districts, the best complexes can sell far above the local median.
The timing is also less comfortable than it was. Nowon, Jungnang and nearby lower-priced districts are among the strongest parts of Seoul’s market these days, so the cheapest segment is currently being pushed upward.
Are Seoul apartment asking prices higher than actual sale prices?
Often yes, and Seoul property portals can therefore make the market look more expensive than completed transactions suggest.
In strong complexes, owners commonly list above the last registered sale because they expect another buyer to pay more. KB listings show examples where average asking prices sit 5% to 15% above recent transactions or estimated market values.
That gap matters when someone searches online and concludes that every Seoul apartment costs the visible listing price. Unsold optimistic listings can remain on portals for weeks, while completed Ministry of Land transactions reveal the price buyers actually accepted.
For judging what apartments cost today, registered transactions deserve more weight than asking prices.
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Is the price gap between expensive and cheaper parts of Seoul finally narrowing?
The gap is still enormous, but cheaper Seoul is currently rising faster than the premium core.
Recent medians still stretch from roughly ₩550 million in Dobong to around ₩2.7 billion in Gangnam. KB’s measure comparing Seoul’s top and bottom apartment price tiers also shows a very large multiple.
Yet the direction has changed. Gangnam and Seocho have recently fallen while Seongbuk, Jungnang, Nowon, Gangseo and other more affordable districts keep climbing.
A few weeks of stronger growth will not erase decades of price separation. Even a 0.5% increase on a ₩600 million apartment adds only ₩3 million, while a much smaller percentage move on a ₩2.5 billion apartment can represent far more won.
For now, the interesting change is that buyers are pushing prices higher farther down Seoul’s affordability ladder.
So how expensive are apartments in Seoul right now?
Seoul apartments are extremely expensive today, but the most useful benchmark is closer to ₩900 million to ₩1.3 billion than the ₩1.6 billion headline average.
Recent completed transactions have a median around ₩916 million, while KB’s estimated median apartment value is roughly ₩1.29 billion. More than half of recent purchases were still below ₩1 billion.
From there, Seoul splits quickly. Around ₩500 million to ₩700 million can still buy apartments in the cheapest outer districts. Roughly ₩1 billion opens a meaningful part of Seoul. ₩1.5 billion gives buyers much more choice in strong middle-tier neighborhoods. ₩2 billion is already normal territory for some premium areas, while prime Gangnam, Seocho and Yongsan apartments regularly move toward ₩3 billion and beyond.
The latest market makes affordability even tougher. Seoul is still rising overall, and some of the strongest gains are now happening in the cheaper districts buyers previously used as an escape from premium prices.
Seoul currently has several apartment markets stacked on top of one another. A buyer can still enter below ₩1 billion, but the type of apartment and location available at that price keeps getting narrower.
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OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis tests the question “How expensive are apartments in Seoul right now?” from several angles rather than starting with one headline average. We compare completed transactions, broader market values, price distributions, district differences, apartment size, new-build pricing, affordability and the latest market momentum.
For what buyers actually paid, we prioritize registered apartment transactions from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s Real Transaction Price Disclosure System. Those records underpin the transaction median, average, price-band shares, district medians and transaction-count comparisons used throughout the article.
We use KB Real Estate Data Hub separately for broader measures of Seoul’s apartment stock, including average and median sale values, price-per-square-meter tiers, prices by floor area, weekly price indices and the price-to-income ratio. We do not treat those measures as interchangeable with completed transaction prices.
When the average and median point to different conclusions, we keep both. The gap is useful because it shows how strongly expensive districts and luxury transactions can pull Seoul-wide averages above the price paid in the middle completed deal.
For new apartments, we use Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation private-apartment presale statistics and Korea Real Estate Board data to compare Seoul’s current new-build pricing with the resale market. Size-specific 59㎡ and 84㎡ figures are used only to illustrate the cost of new supply, not as valuations for every project.
Affordability is assessed with KB’s price-to-income data and household-income benchmarks from the Seoul Institute’s 2024 Seoul Welfare Survey and Statistics Korea’s 2025 Household Finance and Welfare Survey. These measures are used as context for the gap between apartment prices and normal household financial resources.
Recent weekly Korea Real Estate Board releases are used to identify where price momentum is moving now. We compare several consecutive releases so a one-week move in Gangnam, Seocho, Seongbuk, Jungnang, Nowon or other districts is not treated as a complete market trend by itself.
SBS and Yonhap are used as fresh corroborating sources for the latest district-level movements and recent examples, while the primary official datasets remain the main basis for the analysis.
Key sources include: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport downloadable real transaction data, the Ministry’s apartment transaction map, the Real Transaction Price Disclosure System, Korea Real Estate Board R-ONE, the Korea Real Estate Board weekly apartment price release for the August 31, 2026 reference date, the August 24 weekly release, the August 10 weekly release, KB Real Estate Data Hub average apartment sale price, KB median apartment sale price, KB apartment price-per-square-meter quintiles, KB apartment prices by floor area, KB weekly apartment sale-price index, KB price-to-income ratio, HUG July 2026 private-apartment presale statistics, HUG’s presale-price statistics archive, the Seoul Institute 2024 Seoul Welfare Survey dataset, the full Seoul Welfare Survey report, Statistics Korea’s 2025 Household Finance and Welfare Survey, SBS on the latest Seoul market shift, and Yonhap on the September 3, 2026 Korea Real Estate Board release.
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