Property transactions in Korea shrank in the first quarter of this year compared to a year ago, due mainly to tightened supply, according to Cushman and Wakefield, a global private commercial real estate service provider, in a report released Friday.

For the first three months, only three prime office buildings (worth more than 10 billion won each), one hotel and one retail property in the prime asset category, whose asset value exceeds 10 billion won, were transacted. The total transaction volume amounted to 332 billion won ($29.8 million), the report said.

“With a limited number of stabilized prime office buildings currently available for sale in the market, other asset classes such as retail and industrial assets are expected to receive increased interest from investors,” said Yang In-hee, director at Cushman and Wakefield Korea.

In the second quarter, a few transactions, including the Citibank Korea headquarters building in central Seoul and Samsung Insurance’s office building in Yeouido, are expected to be put on the market.

“(The number of) transactions of prime office buildings, however, will be limited to less than five,’’ Yang said.

Institutional investors are gradually turning to development projects due to the high price of stable office investment opportunities, while seeking opportunities to acquire office buildings in overseas markets, the company said.

By Seo Jee-yeon (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)