Last month, the number of villas in Seoul was the highest in 18 years, a report showed. According to Gigi Auction, a company specializing in public sale on the 6th, the total number of auctions held in the Seoul Villa (integrated and multi-family housing) court in April was 1,456. This is the highest monthly figure since May 2006 (1475 cases).
The number of villas auctions in Seoul, which began to increase at the end of 2022, has exceeded 1,000 for the seventh consecutive month since it exceeded 1,000 in October last year (1,268). This is because the number of landlords who cannot return their deposits to tenants or repay their loans has increased as the price of jeonse, which soared until the first half of 2022, has since plunged due to high interest rates and the economic downturn. According to the number of auctions held last month by region, Gangseo-gu, which had the most jeonse fraud cases due to the concentration of villas, overwhelmingly had 536 cases.
Of the 1,456 villas that were auctioned in April, 218 were found, with only 15% of the successful bid rate. Villas are also being shunned in the auction market as villa avoidance intensifies in the aftermath of the rapid return of key money deposit and key money deposit fraud.
In fact, a villa in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu, was auctioned at 24.825 million won on the 25th of last month, 8.6% of the appraised price (289 million won), but there were no bidders, marking the 13th bid. Another villa in Hwagok-dong, which had been auctioned 11 times, was auctioned at 26.886 million won on the 11th, 9% of the appraised price, but failed to find its owner again this time.
Regarding the recent rise in the successful bid rate of villas, Lee Joo-hyun, a member of the support auction expert committee, said, "It seems to be due to the recent increase in the number of villas that HUG gave up its leasehold counterpower after the Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) gave up the deposit on behalf of the landlord.
