Dynamics of Seoul's office market: from local to global, global to local

Due to massive rural-urban migration, there has been substantial demand for urban land in Korean large cities. This rapid urbanization has created problems in the property market. To deal with repeated land booms, the Korean government has controlled demand for land. Government strong intervention in the economy, called 'developmentalism', acted upon in the property market, too. In spite of the growing importance of the office market in the post-modernist economy, little scholarly attention has been paid to the Korean office market in the framework of local and global forces. Following questions can be raised: how has the developmental state affected the formation of the office market and how has this office market been evolved in the mature globalisation era? The primary purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of the government intervention under the developmental state and to explore emerging global influence in the Korean office market. This study reviews dynamics of Seoul's office market with the framework of local and global forces. To understand the local and global factors, two sets of data are established for this study - office stock data composed of 1131 currently operating office buildings, and office transaction data between 1998 and 2013. Findings suggest that local factors remain strong in Seoul's office market despite increasing global influence. After the Asian financial crisis, there was a massive influx of foreign capital into the Seoul office market, but local investors have grown up markedly going through the Global Financial Crisis. To a large extent, Seoul's office market has become global, but concurrently local elements play a crucial role in Seoul, too.