As apartment jeonse listings in Seoul’s top school districts have grown scarcer, more families have been turning to villas — low-rise multi-family and rowhouse-style homes — in areas such as Mokdong and Daechi-dong, according to market data.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s real transaction price disclosure system showed that villa sales and new jeonse and monthly-rent contracts rose ahead of the new school term in key education hubs including Mokdong, Daechi-dong and Junggye-dong in Nowon-gu.
In Mokdong, a major private academy area, villa sales totaled 400 as of Tuesday, with 347 deals concentrated from January through March. That was up 82.6% from 190 a year earlier.
New lease contracts also increased. Total jeonse and monthly-rent deals reached 534 as of Tuesday, including 453 from January through March. That was an 11.0% rise from 408 in the same period last year.
Daechi-dong in Gangnam-gu and Junggye-dong in Nowon-gu showed similar patterns. In Daechi-dong, jeonse and monthly-rent transactions rose 7.8% to 250 in January through March from 232 a year earlier; the cumulative total was 277 as of Tuesday. Villa sales in the January-to-March period increased 35.3% to 23 from 17, with 28 deals recorded in total as of Tuesday.
In Junggye-dong, villa sales surged to 16 in January through March from seven a year earlier, a 128.6% jump; the cumulative total was 17 as of Tuesday. New lease contracts totaled 33 as of Tuesday, including 16 in January through March, up 60% from 10 a year earlier.
The article said demand for villas in school districts began to pick up after March last year, when the Gangnam “big three” districts and Yongsan-gu were designated as land transaction permit zones, creating an owner-occupancy requirement. In Daechi-dong, sales of rowhouses and multi-family homes rose from 17 in 2023 to 29 in 2024 and 90 in 2025.
The trend continued through tighter lending rules and an expansion of regulated areas, the article said, and was further fueled as jeonse supply became increasingly locked up. In Daechi-dong, rowhouse and multi-family sales in the second half of last year (58) were nearly double the first half (32).
Rising apartment prices in top school districts also pushed demand toward villas. Apartment sale prices in the Gangnam “big three” districts climbed about 6%, or 2.6 times Seoul’s overall average increase of 2.29%.
The apartment jeonse market tightened as multi-homeowners put properties up for sale, reducing rental supply, while more existing tenants renewed contracts, the article said. The real estate platform Asil reported that Mokdong jeonse and monthly-rent listings have been declining, and the market has seen a noticeable supply shortage.
Jin Chang-ha, a professor of economics at Hanyang University and president of the Korea Housing Association, said the shift reflects structural changes in the market.
“With moves to regulate loan maturities on top of restrictions for non-resident single-homeowners and new jeonse loan guarantee rules, investment-driven homeownership is ultimately shrinking and owner-occupancy is rising, reshaping the market structure,” Jin said.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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