Housing transactions fall 20 percent in April

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Housing transactions fall 20 percent in April

Korea’s frozen housing market still shows no signs of thawing as transactions nationwide last month fell 20.5 percent from the previous year in April.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, only 57,025 housing units changed hands in April. The figure is 36.2 percent lower than the five-year average for the month.

The situation was worse in the wider Seoul metropolitan region, with transactions last month tumbling 31.5 percent from a year earlier. Transactions in Seoul itself were at just 6,924, a 43.9 percent drop from the same month the previous year.

Declining transactions are largely due to strong government regulations in September last year such as restricting loans to multihome owners.

Meanwhile, apartment prices continued declining, according to the Korea Appraisal Board.

Apartment prices for the second week of May fell 0.08 percent nationwide, with Seoul falling 0.04 percent, compared to a weekly fall of 0.05 percent the previous week.

The Land Ministry announced measures last week to create two additional new towns in areas adjacent to the capital.

According to the Land Ministry, 38,000 residential units will be built on an 8.13 million-square-meter (2,009-acre) area in Changneung-dong in the city of Goyang. Some 20,000 residential units will be built on a 3.43 million-square-meter area in Daejang-dong in Bucheon. Both are in Gyeonggi.

As a result, apartment prices in Gyeonggi fell 0.1 percent.


BY CHAE YUN-HWAN [chae.yunhwan@joongang.co.kr]
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