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If You Lived Here--Ichon (이촌)

If You Lived Here--Ichon (이촌)

These are my housing search notes on Ichon (이촌1동 & 2동).

They keep evolving as I spend more time here. If you're searching here too, feel free to borrow them.


β–‘ Ichon may have the cleanest housing identity in Yongsan.

I thought Hangangno had a clean DNA with the modern high-riser apartments and officetels, until I looked into Ichon.

About 79% of the doors I found are apartments.

Median space: 85㎑.
Median and modal building age segment: 21–30 years.

Ichon is a true premium family apartment residential district.

--

β–‘ And it sits high on the Yongsan pricing ladder.

Median effective rent: β‚©4.31M.
Median ER/㎑: β‚©43,276.
Typical jeonse: β‚©1.125B.
Typical wolse deposit: β‚©400M.
Typical wolse rent: β‚©2.2M.

That's clearly above Hangangno in overall and clearly below Hannam.

To me, Ichon feels like a step up in premium from Hangangno, but without Hannam's enormous luxury scale and wildly heterogeneous housing.

The premium seems to come from a very recognizable residential proposition.

--

β–‘ The asking payment structure pattern filters renters first.

This is the only Yongsan neighborhood in my current set where jeonse is clearly larger than wolse.

57% jeonse.
43% wolse.

And wolse isn't particularly upfront cash-light either.

Typical wolse deposit: β‚©400M. That’s not wolse. That’s a ban-jeonse structure.
Only 1.72% of wolse products had deposits below β‚©50M, which is more extreme than Hannam’s 11%.

To me, the payment structure is pretty much asking: 

β€œAre you coming here to build family life and become part of the community?”

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β–‘ The inventory is surprisingly thin for such a true residential neighborhood.

85 estimated doors / 136 products / 216 listings.

More importantly, only 0.69 doors appeared for every 100 households.
That's even lower than HBC's 0.79.
And Ichon has more than 12,000 households.

So this isn't merely a tiny neighborhood producing a tiny sample. A huge established apartment neighborhood is putting surprisingly few doors onto the observable rental market.

--

β–‘ But that thin inventory looks extremely fresh.

Median listing age: 5 days.

And an extraordinary 39.4% of listings were posted within the previous three days.
That's the freshest online surface in my Yongsan set.

So Ichon inventory gives us this tight combo:
very little observable amount + extremely fresh presentation cycle.

Is that fast absorption? Possibly.
It could also reflect aggressive listing refreshing collectively.

--

β–‘ One door becomes 2.54 listings by math.

Ichon's packaging ratio is 1.60.
Listing inflation is 1.59.

Altogether, that's about 2.54 listings per estimated physical door. Actually the highest listing-to-door ratio in the current Yongsan set.

There are only 85 estimated doors underneath 216 listings.

The market looks much larger on Naver than the actual inventory underneath it.

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β–‘ The budongsan network may carry a co-brokering signal.

95 offices are advertising only 85 estimated doors.
That’s 0.89 doors per advertising office, which is the lowest in my Yongsan set.

Yet the Top 10 account for only 31.94% of listings.
And about 37% of products appeared through multiple offices--the highest cross-office exposure I’ve seen so far in Yongsan.

High transaction value. Very few doors. Lots of offices. Low visibility concentration. More cross-office product exposure...
That combo makes me wonder if Ichon offices specialize deeply (maybe even at the apartment complex level), then work across office lines when they need the other side of a deal.

I can’t call that a co-brokering culture from the data alone. But the signal is there.

--

β–‘ Know the apartment, then stay close to the market.

I'd first understand the major apartment complexes and which size/layout actually fits me.

See enough units to know whether Ichon's particular apartment life is worth paying for.

Then narrow hard.
Complex. Size. Layout. Deposit ceiling. Condition.

And once that buybox is clear, I wouldn't rely too much on passive browsing.

I'd keep a few useful budongsan lines open and watch the fresh inventory closely.

Because Ichon looks like a market where there may not be much to discover--but you may need to be ready when the right door opens.

The product isn't mysterious. The opening is scarce.

West Ichon (red)--older, relatively more affordable. East Ichon above Ichon-ro (blue)--the rebuilt apartment belt. Below Ichon-ro (green)--where redevelopment is concentrated.