[Money Today Reporter Shin Hee-eun]

The rooftop of Building A in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, has a garden and facilities for small meetings and seminars. / Provided by the building management company.

#A Building, located at Yeoksam Intersection in Seoul, is known as one of the buildings with the lowest vacancy rate of 5% or less in a neighborhood full of office buildings. The rooftop of the building, which is mainly occupied by financial and service companies, has an outdoor garden and equipment for small meetings and seminars.
The hard granite interior finishes, which are mainly used in office buildings, were remodeled using wood panels to create a more eco-friendly atmosphere. The building, which was somewhat less popular because it was an old building, is now almost empty thanks to word of mouth that it provides a pleasant working environment.

#The owner of Building B in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, took great pains to differentiate the design from the building construction stage to reduce vacancies. While it would have been easy to have an architect do the design, the owner personally traveled around major European cities to look at similar small and medium-sized buildings.

Buildings that incorporate this experience from the exterior to the interior and internal facilities are in a market where competition to attract tenants is fierce as soon as they are built. 5~6It maintains a vacancy rate of less than %.

As the downtown office building market, including Gwanghwamun, Yeouido, and Gangnam in Seoul, is in a slump, building owners are making every effort to reduce vacancies. In particular, with the exception of some prime buildings with cutting-edge facilities, the vacancy rate in small and medium-sized buildings has increased significantly, and polarization is deepening, with tenants being attracted through differentiated services or being eliminated if they are not.

On the 9th, real estate investment consulting firm Remax Korea announced that it had purchased a major office building in Seoul last month. 354The average vacancy rate in Gaedong was found to be 17.3It reached %. Even in Gangnam, where there was high demand from tenants until just a few years ago, most of the small and medium-sized buildings, except for some prime-level buildings on Teheran-ro, 20It showed a vacancy rate exceeding %.

This is interpreted as a result of companies increasingly reducing office size and staff due to the economic downturn, and more and more moving to the outskirts to cut costs. The continued dispersion of office demand as more companies move to Pangyo, Gwanggyo, and Dongtan has also had an impact. Experts also analyze that this is not unrelated to the phenomenon of the number of office workers in companies gradually decreasing as telecommuting increases.

Jang Jin-taek, CEO of Remax Korea, said, "The rental market is rapidly changing into a so-called tenant-dominant market due to the ongoing recession," adding, "Buildings with poor locations or lack of competitiveness are being eliminated, so building owners are also trying to overcome the recession with differentiated tenant services."

C Building in Yeoksam-dong is considered a 'model case' that has consistently maintained a low vacancy rate. The secret is its well-equipped parking service, which is widely known as the building with the best parking conditions in the Gangnam area. It has ample parking space. 100% is operated as a self-driving system, and the parking fee is considered to be very cheap in the Gangnam area. They also provide fixed parking spaces for each CEO of the company that moves in free of charge.

The owner of the D Building in Seocho-dong is known to thoroughly maintain and manage work-related electricity, internet, etc. in a 'flawless' condition. In addition, they often secure competitiveness by setting up break rooms exclusively for female employees in various parts of the building, regularly holding art exhibitions, etc., or remodeling bathrooms and hallways to make them luxurious.

An official from a building management company said, "In the past, the building owner was in control because the tenants would come in after building the building. But now, it's difficult to even properly maintain it if you just sit back and do nothing."

Director Jang said, “For the time being, there will be no demand to fill vacancies,” and predicted, “Buildings that offer differentiated services beyond attracting tenants with exceptional conditions such as rent-free (free rental for a certain period of time) will survive in the market.”


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Reporter Shin Hee-eun Gorgon@mt.co.kr

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