The waterfront district of Marine City in Busan’s Haeundae District is all glamour with its yacht-filled waters, shiny skyscrapers and colorful nighttime views.
The area, in southeast Busan, has water on three sides and was created on reclaimed land in the mid-1980s as a yacht marina and a resort district for the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
In the mid-2000s, it saw the development of high-rise residential towers, sparked by the growing popularity of the Haeundae District as a tourist destination.
Haeundae Beach, which was featured in the 2009 disaster film “Tidal Wave,” is famous in Korea and beyond.
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At night in Marine City, a canvas of colorful lights from its skyscraper-filled skyline reflects onto the surface of the water. The nearby Gwangan suspension bridge, with its vivid light beams, adds to the futuristic scenery.
Towering above its wide streets are skyscrapers such as the Haeundae Doosan We’ve the Zenith, a landmark development whose 80-story centerpiece tower is one of the tallest in South Korea, according to the Skyscraper Center database.
Summing up its appeal, Dennis Hyunmoo Shin, of Chestertons Korea, said Marine City combines residential and commercial facilities and is recognized as a wealthy village with convenient transport links and high-end restaurants.
Since mid-2017, the South Korean government has implemented housing market calming measures such as raising LTV mortgage rates and property taxes for home buyers and companies who own multiple expensive homes as well as increasing capital gains tax rates in overheated areas including South Korea’s capital Seoul and Busan.
Seoul has continued to see large gains, with apartment prices rising from KRW607millon (US$503,647) in May 2017 to KRW925million (US$767,507) in June 2020. Meanwhile, in Busan, values have stabilized, with apartment prices rising from KRW290 million in May 2017 to KRW295 million in June 2020, according to data from Kookmin Bank via Bloomberg.
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Boundaries
Marine City lies in southeast Busan, South Korea’s second largest city, which has about 3.4 million inhabitants.
The area sits south of Centrum City, west of Haeundae Beach and east of the Suyeong River, where it flows out to meet the Korea Strait sea passage.
Marine City 1-ro is a coastal road that runs parallel to its sweeping waterfront on its western, southern, and eastern edges. Haeundaebyeon-ro, meanwhile, forms its northern border.
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Price Range
According to Joon Choi, executive director of the Private Wealth Management team at Knight Frank Korea, homes in Marine City cost on average about KRW686,297 per square foot.
The figure is based on a sample of three recently sold apartments at the three main luxury developments in Marine City—Haeundae Doosan We’ve the Zenith, Haeundae I’PARK, and Marine City Xi—plus a few other notable apartments in Marine City, Mr. Choi explained.
The latest transaction prices for the Haeundae Doosan We’ve the Zenith, Haeundae I’PARK, and Marine City Xi are KRW931 million, KRW926 million and KRW724 million, respectively, he said.
Penthouse apartments in Marine City normally range from KRW1.7 billion and KRW3 billion. A 214-square-meter (2,300-square-foot) penthouse flat at Haeundae Doosan We’ve The Zenith sold for KRW1.5 billion on June 1, according to Mr. Choi.
Two-bedroom apartments are the most popular type of home, and they range from KRW1.4 billion to KRW1.8 billion depending on views and condition, according to Mr. Shin.
Penthouse flats and top-end homes, meanwhile, cost between KRW1.8 billion and KRW 2 billion, Mr. Shin said.
On June 23, a property in the Trump World Marine development sold for KRW1.83 million. That home was 16.7% more expensive than an equivalent property sold in November 2019, which was the lowest transaction price since the development was built in 2007, Mr. Shin said.
Since last September, prices in South Korea have increased 3.8% and in the Haeundae District by 3.5%, Mr. Shin said. Meanwhile, properties with sea views in Marine City with ocean views have increased from between 10% and 30% over the same period.
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Housing Stock
Marine City has luxury apartments in high-rise residential and mixed-use modern blocks and futuristic, glass-and-steel skyscrapers, which were mainly built in the early 2010s.
The most famous is Haeundae Doosan We’ve the Zenith, a 2011-built complex of 70-, 75- and 80-story residential waterfront towers, with a lushly planted plaza and wavy, mirrored glass facades.
The 2011-built Haeundae I’PARK development has three office towers and one residential building with fin-like shapes, while the 2019-built 49-story Marine City Xi overlooks the yacht marina and has good views of Gwangan Bridge.
The amenities these developments offer—particularly their security features—are a big draw for wealthy buyers in Busan, Mr. Choi said.
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Marine City only has a few sites available for development and there has been a lack of new developments over the past decade, Mr. Shin said.
Prices in Marine City have remained stagnant for nearly a decade despite a lack of new supply and a limited number of existing properties, he said.
Marine City's luxury apartments in high-rise residential and mixed-use modern blocks.
PixabayWhat Makes it Unique
In Marine City, everything is on a grand scale. It has cinematic streetscapes, with high-volume blocks and long, wide avenues, which open out onto the coastal road offering panoramic sea views.
It has five-star hotels and plenty of places to shop, drink and dine. In addition, it lies in a prime spot, close to the popular Dongbaekseom island and Haeundae Beach, while being a short distance from central Busan.
Although it is popular with tourists, it has a sedate atmosphere, with low levels of traffic, wide roads and a low population density, Mr. Choi said.
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Film fans may know that its coastal area—or promenade—is also known as Cinema Street, as it features a brief history of the Korean film industry. The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), dubbed the Cannes of Asia, is held annually in October in the Haeundae District.
The Gwangan highway suspension bridge, which features colorful beams at night and offers a seasonal light display, also starred in the high-speed car chase scene in the 2018 film “Black Panther.”
Who Lives There
The vast majority of Marine City’s residents are domestic residents who live in Busan, according to Mr. Shin. The rest are citizens who own homes but do not live in the city. Data from Statistics Korea shows that the number of residences in Haeundae that are owned by people who reside outside of Busan was 13,684 in 2016, 14,150 in 2017 and 14,656 in 2018, which represent about 10% of the total residences in Haeundae, according to Mr. Choi.
“Residents in Marine City are high earners and include both young, working professionals and retired businesspeople who work or have worked across a variety of sectors,” Mr. Choi said. “Among them are some expats who have relocated to Busan for work.”
“Most of the residents are business owners or families of business owners, and there are also some doctors, lawyers and financial specialists,” he added.
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According to the Haeundae administration office, the number of foreigners who bought in Marine City in 2015 was 44, 31 in 2016, 32 in 2017, 109 in 2018 and 40 in 2019.
The reason for the jump in 2018 was that the city authorities introduced an immigration-by-investment scheme for foreign buyers who purchased hotel-linked residences in Busan, Mr. Shin explained.
He said that the scheme drove demand from foreign buyers, mainly from China, who bought condos at the presale period at Haeundae LTC The Sharp development. Completed last year, it sits beside Haeundae Beach and has a 101-floor mixed-use tower and two 85-floor residential skyscrapers.
Although foreign investors’ nationalities are not revealed, people from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Japan have been buying residential properties in Busan by attending investor conferences held in South Korea according to the media reports,
Foreigners can buy residential property in South Korea without restrictions, but it is difficult for non-residents to obtain local mortgages. Buyers tend to get a mortgage in their country or pay with cash, according to property investment site Asia Property HQ.
Luxury Amenities
Marine City offers fine dining spots, five-star hotels and luxury rental houseboats.
Yacht Stay Club, which offers houseboats for rent at the Suyoungman Yacht Stadium located beside Marine City, is more like a leisure facility rather than a formal club, Mr. Choi said.
Cloud 32 is an Italian restaurant and bar on the 32nd floor of the five-star Hanwha Resort, which Mr. Choi describes as having a “gorgeous view of the Gwangan Bridge and Gwangalli Beach, all backdropped by Hwangnyeong mountain in the distance.”
He added that the Dining Room steakhouse on the 32nd floor of the Park Hyatt Hotel offers “a gold standard for fine dining in Busan.”
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In Centum City, about 15 minutes by metro train from Dongbaek station, there is the flagship department store of Shinsegae, South Korea’s largest retailer. The Shinsegae store, which stocks hundreds of brands and has a spa and an ice rink, is a Busan landmark.
Centrum City also is the home of the Busan Cinema Center, the official venue for BIFF, and BEXCO (Busan Exhibition and Convention Center), which hosts international music concerts, among other events.
Though there are no international schools in the Marine City, according to Mr. Shin, it is a 10- to 15-minute drive from the Busan Foreign School, an international school in Haeundae for pre-K to grade 12 students, which has an American-style educational philosophy and curriculum.
Marine City is a short walk from Haeundae Beach, Busan’s most famous beach, a magnet for locals and tourists and a cultural icon. Top beachfront hotels that line the boardwalk offer nightlife, and the beach itself hosts numerous cultural events.
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Notable Residents
Among Marine City’s recognizable residents are Lee Dae-Ho, a baseball player for the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Championship, which has its home ground in Busan; Seol Ki-Hyeon, a former footballer who has been the manager of Gyeongnam FC since 2019 and played for the Korean national team and Premier League English teams Reading FC and Fulham FC before that; and Kim Sung Ryung, a popular film, theater and television actress who was the former Miss Korea in 1988 and Miss Universe Korea in 1989, according to Mr. Choi.
Outlook
Property prices have drastically increased nationwide since September last year, but an upward trend seems unlikely to continue because of the recent tax changes for multiple homeowners and expensive single homes, Mr. Shin said.
“We predict that the existing demand for expensive homes in Busan will move to Seoul if multiple homeowners can only buy one home in South Korea, so long as demand from overseas buyers for Busan luxury housing does not increase,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mr. Choi predicts that the changes will lead to gradual price increases and lower transaction volumes in Busan’s luxury markets. “The government’s policies to restrict the market makes homeowners hold onto their property for longer, which makes supply levels drop.”
He said that data from Kookmin Bank, which produces a nationwide house price index, shows that the demand increased recently because people tried to secure properties before the stronger restrictions came into effect.
There are no data sources available for sales transactions, sales volumes and how many weeks it takes on average for a home to sell in Marine City, according to Mr. Shin.
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