"More Than 20 Prospective Buyers Crowd In..." What Makes Yejun Building Near Jamsil Station So Attractive? [fn Market Watch]

[Financial News] The sale of Yejun Building in Seoul's Songpa District, acquired by Eden Asset Management through a blind fund, has entered the formal bidding phase. More than 20 prospective buyers have toured the property since the seller distributed the investment memorandum (IM), raising expectations for strong interest. The seller is coordinating the schedule with a bid targeted for the end of this month.
According to investment banking (IB) industry sources on the 4th, Colliers Korea, the sales advisor for Yejun Building, recently distributed the IM to domestic and overseas institutional investors. More than 20 parties—including real estate asset managers, developers and strategic investors (SIs) seeking properties for their own use—are understood to have participated in the on-site due diligence. The bid is targeted for the end of September, although the schedule could be adjusted depending on the prospective buyers' internal review timelines.
Completed in April 1994, Yejun Building is an office property located on Olympic-ro 35da-gil in Songpa District. It has five basement levels and 16 floors above ground, with a total floor area of 19,925 square meters.
The site covers 1,978 square meters, while the building footprint is 827 square meters. Each typical floor measures approximately 372 pyeong, making it relatively versatile among mid-sized offices. Parking consists of 150 spaces: 101 indoor spaces, 38 mechanical spaces and 11 outdoor spaces. The building has five elevators—four passenger elevators and one emergency elevator. The net leasable area ratio is approximately 53% for a single-tenant arrangement and 48.83% for a multi-tenant arrangement.
The location is considered the deal's key competitive advantage. The building is a three-minute walk from Jamsil Station, an interchange station for Subway Lines 2 and 8, providing excellent access to Seoul's major business districts as well as the wider Seoul metropolitan area via the Jamsil Metropolitan Transfer Center. Nearby airport bus stops also make it convenient to reach Incheon International Airport.
The tenant mix is viewed as stable. Creditworthy tenants—including A Plus Asset Advisor, Samsung Life Financial Services, Samsung Financial Partners, KB Kookmin Card, Dong Yang FT and Woowa Youths—are distributed across the floors. A Twosome Place, a bakery café and various food and beverage (F&B) outlets occupy the lower floors and basement level 1, supporting stable rental income.
The property also has value-add potential. Yejun Building currently has a floor area ratio of 616.70% and a building coverage ratio of 41.83%. It is located in a general commercial area and within a district-unit planning zone—Jamsil Metropolitan Center District 1—leaving additional development capacity relative to the permitted floor area ratio. As an asset more than 30 years old, it offers several options, including enhancing its value through remodeling, expanding the building by using the remaining floor area ratio, and pursuing new development over the medium to long term.
Another attraction is that a strategic investor could directly use space whose leases are set to expire as its headquarters. In recent office transactions, buyers seeking properties for their own use, rather than purely financial investors, have increasingly gained an edge in price competition.
The seller, Eden Asset Management, formed a blind fund in 2020 after attracting the Government Employees Mutual Aid Association, The Police Mutual Aid Association and Shinsegae Property as major investors. The fund acquired Yejun Building along with Yeonsinnae Beomil Building, the Seongsu-dong Complex Facility Development Project, Seosomun Jeongan Building and Cheongdam Building. Eden Asset Management has been sequentially selling its holdings since last year as it moves toward liquidating the fund.
An IB industry official said, "This deal can also be seen as a test of the temperature of the office transaction market in the second half of the year." The official added, "Buyers that had been waiting on the sidelines are moving again as financing conditions improve amid a trend toward lower interest rates, but the gap between sellers' and buyers' price expectations remains a variable."
[email protected] Kang Gu-gwi Reporter