The government’s proposal to move the Blue House, National Assembly and other ministries to Sejong has triggered a rush for property in the town south of Seoul. Inquiries for apartments for sale and jeans deposits, or long-term housing rental deposit, rose 0.97 percent during the week ending July 20 compared with the previous one. Check this out:sejongrealtor.com

To encourage government workers to relocate to the region and provide stable housing, a special program was introduced to guarantee them the right to purchase homes. Under the program, construction companies had to reserve a portion of newly built apartments for government employees. As a result, about 26,400 government employees bought a total of 97,000 apartments in the past 10 years. But the scheme has been criticized as not effective. Young employees who recently joined ministries are not eligible to purchase apartments under the special program because it was introduced years ago, and they have had to search for their own residences in a city where housing prices have skyrocketed.

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Despite the rising inquiries for properties, some experts caution that the market is still in the early stages of recovery. Nam Jin-hong, a realtor in Jochiwon, says that the latest news has sparked many new inquiries for the Xi apartment complex he oversees in a small town 150 kilometers from Sejong, but those requests have not yet turned into real transactions.

In other areas, the real estate market is still sensitive to speculation. The previous government designated districts where apartment prices have risen significantly as speculative, and put in place various limitations on financing and selling apartments. Although the Moon government has eased some of those restrictions outside greater Seoul and Sejong, they remain in effect in Seoul.