Ownership transfers for 12,032 units get underway, appearing in registry data for first time

KB prices Olympic Park Foreon's standard unit at 3 billion won; complex could top market-cap rankings if added to leading-50 index

Olympic Park Foreon apartment complex in Gangdong-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]
Olympic Park Foreon apartment complex in Gangdong-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]

A statistical anomaly has emerged in Seoul's first-time homebuyer data for Gangdong-gu's Dunchon-dong, caused by a backlog of ownership transfers at Olympic Park Foreon being processed all at once. The surge in registered first-time buyers does not reflect a sudden spike in new purchases over the past month — rather, it reflects pre-sale and resale contracts from the past finally being recorded in the registry.

According to the Supreme Court's Registry Information Plaza, a total of 2,184 people completed ownership transfer registrations in Dunchon-dong in August after purchasing a collective building for the first time in their lives. Young buyers made up a large share of that figure. Among those aged 20 to 49, a total of 1,832 people — 937 women and 895 men — completed registrations as first-time buyers of a collective building, accounting for roughly 84 percent of the total.

However, this should not be read as more than 2,000 previously non-homeowning buyers purchasing homes in Dunchon-dong last month. The Registry Information Plaza tallies ownership transfer registrations completed during a given period, meaning there can be a significant gap between when a sales contract is signed and when the registration is finalized. The plaza classifies a buyer as a first-time purchaser if no prior ownership record of a collective building exists in the registry as of the date the transfer is completed.

The August figures appear to reflect a large volume of ownership transfers at Olympic Park Foreon being processed simultaneously. Although move-ins at the complex began in November 2024, delays in the reconstruction project's relocation notice and preservation registration meant that pre-sale buyers and association members were unable to complete ownership transfers for a considerable period after moving in.

The housing reconstruction association behind the Dunchon Jugong apartment reconstruction project completed the relocation notice on March 25 and filed for preservation registration on May 14. Preservation registration is the procedure that creates an initial registry entry for a newly built collective building; ownership transfers to pre-sale buyers and others cannot proceed until that step is finished.

Ownership transfers are now in their final stages. An official at the association said transfers for roughly 5,900 association members have been completed, while those for general pre-sale buyers and other purchasers are still ongoing. All registrations — whether handled through a legal scrivener or filed directly by individuals — are expected to be completed by Oct. 10, the official said.

Pricing data for Olympic Park Foreon, which had largely eluded market trackers, has also begun to be compiled in earnest. KB Real Estate has been providing sale price data for the complex since late August, when ownership transfers began in full.

According to KB Real Estate, the sale price for a 59-square-meter unit at Olympic Park Foreon stands at 2.55 billion won ($1.88 million), while an 84-square-meter unit is priced at 3 billion won. It took roughly one year and 10 months after move-ins began in late 2024 for KB pricing to be established for the 12,000-unit complex.

With KB pricing now in place, financial institutions can use the figures to assess market value for mortgage lending. Under current rules, the maximum mortgage loan for home purchases in the Greater Seoul area and regulated zones is 600 million won for homes valued at up to 1.5 billion won, 400 million won for homes valued between 1.5 billion and 2.5 billion won, and 200 million won for homes valued above 2.5 billion won. Financial institutions use appraisal data from credible sources, including KB Real Estate's general average price, to determine a home's market value.

As a result, buyers purchasing an Olympic Park Foreon unit with a KB-assessed price above 2.5 billion won will face a maximum mortgage cap of 200 million won for home-purchase loans. The actual amount a borrower can access may be further reduced depending on their debt service ratio and loan-to-value ratio.

Olympic Park Foreon has not yet been included in KB Kookmin Bank's KB Leading Apartments 50 index, however. The index tracks price trends for the 50 apartment complexes nationwide with the highest market capitalization.

Given that Olympic Park Foreon is the country's largest apartment complex at 12,032 units, there is growing interest in whether its eventual inclusion in the KB Leading Apartments 50 could shake up the rankings once all transfers are complete and pricing data stabilizes. The current market-cap leader is Helio City in Songpa-gu's Garak-dong, with a market cap of 22.61 trillion won as of May this year. With more units than Helio City and KB prices already at elevated levels, Olympic Park Foreon is widely seen as a strong candidate to claim the top market-cap spot if it joins the index.

The completion of ownership transfers is also expected to affect the resale market going forward. Many transactions before registration took the form of rights trades — such as association member move-in rights or pre-sale rights — but units with completed ownership transfers can from that point be traded as ordinary apartment sales.

Units among the general pre-sale allocation that remain subject to an owner-occupancy requirement under the price ceiling on new apartments will face separate restrictions, however. Completing an ownership transfer does not mean all general pre-sale units can be freely sold immediately.

"Olympic Park Foreon is an ultra-large new complex that offers both investment value and genuine livability, so it is likely to serve as a benchmark for the new-build market in the Gangdong area and exert a broad influence on surrounding sale prices as well as jeonse and monthly rent levels," said Kim Hyo-seon, a senior real estate specialist at KB Kookmin Bank.


quq@heraldcorp.com