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A view of apartment buildings in Seoul. / Source: Yonhap News

Reports of home price-fixing have clustered in the Seoul capital region over the past five years, new data show.

According to materials submitted by Rep. Min Hong-cheol of the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee on October 13, there were 2,313 reports of alleged price collusion from 2020 to 2024. Of these, 1,654—71.5%—came from the Seoul metropolitan area (Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon).

By region, Gyeonggi Province recorded the most with 1,088 cases (47.1%), followed by Seoul with 344 (14.9%), Busan with 287 (12.4%), Incheon with 222 (9.6%), and Daegu with 85 (3.7%). Notably, Busan accounted for 43.5% of all non-capital area reports (659).

The concentration persisted in the first half of this year. Of 49 reports filed nationwide, Gyeonggi accounted for 24, Seoul 13, and Busan 4.

Year by year, total reports fell from 1,418 in 2020 to 674 in 2021, 87 in 2022, 68 in 2023, and 66 in 2024, with 49 filed in the first half of 2025. Even so, the share advancing to police probes has risen: investigations opened in 46 cases (3.2%) in 2020 and 47 (7.0%) in 2021, dipped to zero in 2023, then rebounded to six (12.2%) in the first half of 2025.

“The pattern of reports concentrated in the capital region and Busan underscores the seriousness of market distortion,” Rep. Min said, urging the government to strengthen its investigative and enforcement framework to stabilize the housing market.