Seoul’s crowded CBD office market is about to see another major listing, with ARA Korea Asset Management moving to sell Seoul Square in a deal that could top $700+ million.

Full-scale marketing for the landmark tower—sitting right across from Seoul Station—will begin in August, led by JLL Korea and Savills Korea. The 24-story building, completed in 1970, offers about 132,800 square meters of gross floor area and is one of the most recognizable assets in the city’s core.

Completed in 1970, Seoul Square is a major office complex comprising 2 underground and 23 above-ground floors, with a total gross floor area of 132,806 square meters.

ARA Korea and NH Investment & Securities bought Seoul Square in 2019 for around $716 million, structuring the deal with a mix of common and preferred equity.

Major institutional players including Samsung Fire & Marine, Samsung Life Insurance, NongHyup, and the Korea Scientists and Engineers Mutual-aid Association hold preferred shares, while loans accounting for about $465 million of the capital stack carry interest rates of roughly 5%.

The private real estate trust,“ARA Korea Private Real Estate Investment Trust No.1,” that owns the building is set to mature next February, leaving the sellers keen to close the sale within the year.

Seoul Square’s prime location is a key selling point, boasting direct underground connections to subway lines 1 and 4, the Airport Railroad, and the GTX-A express rail. Large-scale redevelopment plans nearby, such as the Millennium Hilton Hotel site and the Seoul Station North District project, are expected to lift the area’s profile even further.

But market headwinds are real. The building’s vacancy rate sits at 18.6%, worsened by SK Group’s e-commerce affiliate 11st Street moving out last year to cut costs—leaving four floors still empty.

The Seoul CBD market has seen similar assets struggle to meet price expectations. Last December, Singapore’s GIC pulled Seoul Finance Center off the market after bids came in below its target range of $27,500 per 3.3㎡, settling instead around $23,200–24,600 per 3.3㎡.

With roughly $700+ million at stake, the big question is whether investors will pay up in a market awash with available space.