Korea peace talks ignite land buying frenzy
SEOUL: Forget Seoul’s posh Gangnam district.
With North Korea pledging to reduce tensions and renew ties with its southern neighbour, South Korea’s hottest property market is now along the heavily fortified border between the two countries.
Demand for property in small towns and sparsely populated rural areas around the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) is surging on expectations of an influx of people and investment.
Kang Sung-wook, a 37-year-old dentist in the South Korean border city of Paju, has bought eight separate lots of land in and around the DMZ since mid-March.
Five were purchased without ever setting foot on them, using only Google Earth satellite photos and maps, as areas inside the DMZ cannot not be accessed by the public.
Kang said buying interest jumped so sharply as relations between the former foes improved that he needed to move fast.
“I was out looking since North Korea-US summit news was announced in March, and it looked like all the good ones were gone already,” said Kang.
“I realised then that the market was on fire.”
His investment along the border now totals three billion won (RM11mil) for 20ha of land.
For decades, the DMZ has been a different kind of hot spot, the scene of sometimes deadly military provocations and daring defections from the North.
The zone, dotted with guard posts and strung with razor wire, was established after the 1950-1953 Korean War. The two Koreas still don’t officially recognise each other and remain in a technical state of war because the conflict ended in a truce, not a peace agreement.
Over a million landmines were laid in border areas including the DMZ and the Civilian Control Zone in the South, said Jeong In-cheol, a landmine expert at National Park Conservation Network.
But while public access is restricted, land within the 2km wide South Korean side of the DMZ and other border areas can still be purchased and registered.
Land transactions in Paju, gateway to the United Nations truce village of Panmunjom, more than doubled in March to 4,628 from February, government data shows. That far outstripped better known markets such as trendy Gangnam, where volumes were up just 9%.
In the settlement of Jangdanmyun, home to Dorasan Station – the last railway stop south of the border – transaction volumes surged four-fold from a year earlier. Land prices there rose 17% over the same period.
Kim Yoon-sik, a realtor with 25 years experience in Paju, says owners of the land in the DMZ include those who inherited farmland from ancestors in pre-Korean war days and some long-term investors.
“With bids outnumbering offers, I often see sellers cancelling on preliminary contracts, it’s that hot,” Kim said. —