There's a store that's empty even in downtown Seoul.a cold wind-churning mall

[Anchor]
The Myeong-dong commercial district in Seoul, where the vacancy rate increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, is getting revitalized, but merchants are still clamoring that business is not as good as before COVID-19.

In addition, the situation is worse in other local commercial districts.

As the vacancy rate increases, the number of commercial sales on the auction market is also increasing.

Reporter Choi Doo-hee toured the scene.

[Reporter]
Myeong-dong business district in Seoul, which shrank greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even though it's a weekday morning, it's crowded with foreign tourists.

As a result of the recovery of vacancy rates, the banner of the rental door is not very noticeable, but the inside is different.

Merchants say that sales are not as good as before.

[Jang Mi-young / Seoul Myeong-dong Merchant: There were many stores, but it's hard to expect a rise in sales compared to the influx of customers since it's an era of high prices.]

Around the same time, the Sinchon area, the symbol of youth, is relatively quiet.

In fact, the vacancy rate of small shopping malls in the region was around 18%, higher than in other regions such as Myeong-dong, where the vacancy rate fell to the single digits.

Even though it's on the side of the boulevard, you can easily see a building with a banner on the rental door or that it's empty like this.

[Park Chun-Shim / Seoul Sinchon Merchant: None. People are... So I'm thinking about what to do to fold it or not. There are a lot of empty places in the store, so it's harder to do it.]

The situation is similar in other regions, but among the six major commercial districts in Seoul, the vacancy rate is all double digits except Myeong-dong, and the Gangnam area, including Garosu-gil, is even worse.In the aftermath of

high prices and high interest rates, small business owners are unable to afford rent and changes in online-oriented consumption trends seem to have contributed to the increase in vacancy rates.

In fact, the vacancy rate of small shopping malls nationwide in the second quarter was the highest since the related statistics were compiled in 2015.

As a result, the number of commercial sales being auctioned is increasing, but as the demand for winning the bid decreases, the number of sales is also rapidly accumulating.

In fact, the successful bid rate for shopping malls in the Seoul metropolitan area was less than 20% last month, and the successful bid rate for shopping malls in Seoul was 15% lower than that.

[Lee Joo-hyun / GG Auction Specialist: As interest rates rise, it can be said that shopping malls that have not been able to overcome the interest burden are being put up for sale, and because of the bad economy, the rental market is not good, so we cannot meet the rental yield.]

While the number of commercial sales on the auction market is expected to continue to increase for the time being, it seems to be rapidly entering the era of polarization.

I'm Choi Doohee of YTN.