Is It Too Late to Invest in Jeju?

In October 2008, it was right after the global financial crisis hit Korea. I was at the Gimpo Airport waiting for my plane to Jeju Island. All the TV screens at the gate lounge were beaming the breaking news on KOSPI(Korea Composite Stock Price Index) plunged to 892.16 point, a drop of 39.8% from the previous highest point. It was simply a disaster.

View From Seongsan Sunrise Peak in Jeju Island

For the next 4 years of my residence in Jeju, I personally witnessed how beautiful the island was and how preposterously Jeju had been undervalued as a real estate investment. When I left Jeju in 2012, extensive development projects around southwest part of Jeju were drawn and big international funds were included among those project investors. The positive anticipation for Jeju real estate market was in the air and local people started to worry about the market to be overheated. What would they have said if they had known that it was just the beginning of the steep rise of the real estate price in Jeju?

Since then, Jeju had shown a steep rise in real estate until the cooling measure of the provincial government was taken last year and investment from China, who has been the biggest international investor of Jeju among all other foreign countries, has decreased due to the recent political issue between South Korea and China.

The 2016 reports about Korean real estate said Jeju has hit its highest and anticipated gradual decline. After the major financial crisis, heavily depreciated properties were mostly luxurious houses and condos in the famous resort cities around the world, yet those cities have shown strong downward rigidity in terms of the land price. So has been in Jeju.

Like most of the resort cities, tourism is the major industry of Jeju and the local economy heavily depends on it. However, Jeju real estate has the stable domestic demand since it ranked the best place to retire and the investment factors such as beautiful natural environment, convenient transportation to the mainland with the additional airport to be constructed in 2025, distinctive amenities and unique local culture make Jeju still a good investment for both domestic and international investors.