Seoul from South Korea's E-Land Group for 220 billion won (US$177 million), E-Land confirmed on Wednesday.
GIC submitted an application to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs last Friday to launch a real estate investment trust to buy the properties in an affluent district from E-Land Group, according to a ministry official who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
E-Land, which specialises in the retail, fashion and leisure businesses, will lease back the New Core Outlet and Kim's Club Mart buildings and will have the right to buy them back five years later, the firm said.
GIC, Singapore's largest wealth fund managing over $200 billion in assets, has been the most active foreign investor in South Korean property since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
The transaction is expected to help E-Land shore up its balance sheet after it scrapped Hong Kong IPO plans for a unit last year, and in the face of stiff competition from other shopping malls and food outlets.