Does 44 days on market create negotiating room in Seoul?

K

knitsAndAtlas

Homeowner
Established
I’m deciding whether to negotiate now or wait for more listings. Seoul feels split rather than uniformly fast or slow: homes marketed as coastal or waterside in the ₩358,800,000–₩538,200,000 range seem to sit for about 44 days, while anything with a clear answer on maintenance moves differently.

Agents give conflicting explanations, including seasonality. Has anyone tracked recent completed sales against their public asking histories, including price cuts or withdrawals?
 
Forty-four days can support a lower offer, but only after narrowing the comparison. I’d separate listings by very small area, condition and maintenance uncertainty, then see whether older stock is cutting prices or simply being withdrawn. The latter tells a different story from completed sales.
 
What does “coastal” cover here? Several waterside pockets can be advertised together even when buyers do not treat them as substitutes. Also, are the homes similar in size and format? The ₩358,800,000–₩538,200,000 span may contain more than one market.
 
The maintenance point may be doing more work than the 44 days. A home with a defined issue and understandable cost can be easier to price than one where the scope is vague. I would compare known maintenance, unresolved maintenance and recently completed work separately.
 
I’m not convinced seasonality is the main explanation. If new-listing volume rose while buyer demand stayed selective, average time could lengthen without sellers becoming meaningfully more negotiable. Price-cut timing and completed outcomes would be more useful than the headline days.
 
Is financing affecting your own decision? A buyer with a firm ceiling may need to treat the upper end of that range differently, even if both properties have been listed for 44 days. Asking how long a seller will wait is less useful than knowing what you can comfortably offer.
 
If the home is still actively for sale after 44 days, the next question is why. An owner needing a straightforward deal may consider a supported lower offer, while another can simply hold the price. I’d ask the agent whether any previous agreement collapsed and what timetable the owner prefers, then judge the answer alongside condition and recent completed sales.
 
Build a simple table: first visible asking price, each cut date, current ask, days under the current listing, maintenance position, and outcome. Keep withdrawn homes in their own column. Otherwise relisting can make stale stock look new and distort your 44-day observation.
 
Be careful with “public asking history versus final price.” The visible history may not capture every change or private concession. It is still useful, but I wouldn’t calculate negotiating room from it as though it were a complete record.
 
Do your agents count withdrawn listings when they describe the market? One may be talking only about completed transactions while another includes everything advertised. That alone could explain why their answers sound contradictory.
 
Also ask what they mean by days on market. If a property disappears and returns, is the count reset or carried over? You need a consistent convention before comparing the 44 days with any completed example.
 
A lower price is not the only negotiating variable. Where maintenance is uncertain, an offer that makes your assumptions explicit may be safer than winning a discount and inheriting an undefined problem. Exact terms depend on the transaction and local advice, but clarity matters.
 
I’d split the price range at least once rather than treating ₩358,800,000 and ₩538,200,000 buyers as one group. Different financing limits and expectations may create the apparent split even within the same neighbourhood.
 
For completed comparisons, match in this order: tight location, similar property characteristics, condition, maintenance position, then listing timeline. A nearby sale requiring substantial work may be less informative than a slightly older sale in comparable condition.
 
I disagree that 44 days itself creates much leverage. It signals that the asking price has not produced a completed sale yet, but not why. Without viewing activity, rejected offers or seller plans, the number is mostly a prompt to investigate.
 
A concise set of agent questions might help: How many comparable homes completed recently? How many were withdrawn? When did the successful listings first cut? Are the neighbourhood boundaries identical? What unresolved maintenance remains? Asking every agent the same questions should make their answers easier to compare.
 
Neighbourhood boundaries are especially important here. Search portals and agents can group adjacent areas for convenience, while buyers may place a sharp value difference on being one street or transport connection away. Plot the listings rather than relying on the area label.
 
Luca, can you clarify whether “coastal” is the agents’ marketing category or your own shorthand for several waterside areas? If it crosses multiple pockets, that may be the main reason the market appears split.
 
When you say “clear answer on maintenance,” do you mean recurring charges, the condition of the individual home, or expected building work? Those produce different buyer reactions. Your comparison will be stronger if you record them separately rather than using one maintenance column.
 
Viewing notes could add context that listing histories miss. Record whether a home looks occupied, empty, recently refreshed or visibly neglected, but treat these as observations rather than proof of seller motivation. Condition can explain why two similarly priced listings move differently.
 
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