Songpa-gu, Seoul, saw apartment jeonse (Korea's lump-sum deposit lease) listings fall 47.0% from Oct. 15 last year through Oct. 20 this year. In the period just before that, from June 27 to Oct. 15 last year, listings there had risen 90.3%. Over the same year, Seoul apartment jeonse listings fell 15.1%, from 24,369 to 20,680.
It is easy to assume that loan and purchase rules concern people buying homes, not jeonse tenants. But the point lies elsewhere. Much of Songpa's 47% is the earlier surge in listings unwinding, and beneath it runs a broader shift: the ban on buying a home with a tenant's jeonse deposit in place has narrowed the supply of jeonse across Seoul.
- Where did Songpa's 47% come from?
If Songpa's listings on June 27 last year are counted as 100, they rose to 190 on Oct. 15 and then fell to just over 100 on Oct. 20 this year (illustrative calculation). A good part of the nearly halved listings is the surge in the less than four months before the measures. We could not confirm why Songpa's listings rose so much then.
Songpa was already a land transaction permit zone (a place where buyers must show the district office they will live in the home and get permission) along with Gangnam, Seocho and Yongsan before the Oct. 15 measures. So it is hard to explain Songpa's drop by the new rules alone. What changed is outside Songpa.
- What did the Oct. 15 measures extend to all of Seoul?
On Oct. 15 last year, the government extended land transaction permit zones from the three Gangnam-area districts (Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa) and Yongsan to all 25 districts of Seoul. From Oct. 20, anyone who buys a home in Seoul must move in within four months and live there for two years. The designation runs through Dec. 31 this year.
That shut down gap investing (buying a home by using the tenant's jeonse deposit to cover part of the price). If a home worth KRW 1 billion (about $714,000) had a tenant on a KRW 500 million (about $357,000) jeonse deposit, a buyer used to be able to pay just KRW 500 million (about $357,000) and leave the tenant in place (illustrative calculation). Now the buyer has to move in.
- Why does blocking purchases with a tenant in place cut jeonse listings?
A gap investor buys a home without living in it and rents it out on jeonse. Now the buyer must move in → the home leaves the jeonse market → that many fewer homes come up for jeonse.
Industry watchers point to this as a factor in shrinking jeonse supply. On top of it, they say, renewals, where tenants sign again for the same home instead of moving, and conversions to monthly rent are reducing new jeonse listings. A renewed home never comes up as a listing, and a home switched to monthly rent drops off the jeonse listings.
- How far did it spread, in numbers?
From the June 27 loan curbs last year to just before the Oct. 15 measures, Seoul apartment jeonse listings fell just 2.0%. In that stretch, outer and mid-to-low-priced districts fell first, such as Seongbuk 39.3%, Jungnang 35.8%, Seongdong 31.9% and Gwanak 30.6%, while Songpa rose 90.3% and Gangnam 14.9%.
After Oct. 15 the direction reversed. Listings fell in 21 of 25 districts. Gangnam fell 24.1%, and newly designated Dongdaemun went from a 3.4% rise to a 69.5% drop, and Guro from a 6.6% rise to a 58.8% drop.
In short, the jeonse drought that began in the outer districts spread after the measures to most of Seoul, including the Gangnam area.
- How did the rental market change as jeonse shrank?
In January–September this year, of 172,027 Seoul apartment jeonse and monthly rent deals, 87,740, or 51.0%, were monthly rent, more than jeonse. In the same period last year it was 43.7%. Monthly rent deals also fell 2.8%, but jeonse deals fell 27.5%. Monthly rent did not grow so much as jeonse dropped out.
Monthly rent prices rose too. In September, Seoul's average apartment monthly rent was KRW 1.661 million (about $1,186), KRW 218,000 (about $156) more than KRW 1.443 million (about $1,031) a year earlier. At that average, a tenant pays about KRW 2.62 million (about $1,870) more a year (illustrative calculation). It is like a phone bill going up by more than KRW 200,000 (about $143) a month while your pay stays the same. And unlike switching phone plans, monthly rent is not easy to move out of.
- What gets tighter next year?
According to Seoul city, move-ins of new Seoul apartments, including those scheduled, are expected to fall by about 4,000 homes, from 26,000 this year to 22,000 next year. Owners of new apartments put homes up for jeonse early in the move-in period to raise the final payment (the last installment of the price), so move-ins are one more way new jeonse listings come up.
The drop itself is not large. But an industry source said that with existing listings already down, supply and demand could feel even tighter.
- BITPRESS Insight
On Songpa's figures alone, it looks like listings that briefly jumped a year ago went back to where they were. The real change is across Seoul. When the move-in requirement, once limited to the three Gangnam-area districts and Yongsan, spread to all of Seoul → the route of buying a home and renting it out on jeonse closed → and with renewals and conversions to monthly rent added, Seoul apartment jeonse listings fell 15.1% in a year. The rule targeted purchases, but it narrowed one branch of jeonse supply too.
Next year, move-ins of new apartments are also expected to fall. For jeonse tenants, renewal is now a negotiation in which the assumption that "if I leave, I can easily find another jeonse" is weaker.
When you dislike the renewal terms, the thing to compare them with is not "another jeonse" but "the extra money each month if I move to monthly rent."
Sources
https://www.newspim.com/news/view/20261021000857
https://www.newdaily.co.kr/site/data/html/2026/10/20/2026102000226.html
https://m.seoul.co.kr/news/2025/10/16/20251016001004
Glossary
Land transaction permit zone — A place where buyers must show the district office they will live in the home and get permission; in Seoul, buyers must move in within four months and live there for two years.
Gap investing — Buying a home by using the tenant's jeonse deposit to cover part of the price, so the buyer pays only the gap between the price and the deposit.
Renewal contract — A tenant signs a new lease on the same home instead of moving out.
Jeonse listings — A jeonse home that is on the market now, looking for a tenant.
Move-in volume — The number of homes in newly built apartments that residents move into for the first time.
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