Home transactions plunge 42.5 percent in Nov. on lending curbs

Home transactions in Korea tumbled nearly 43 percent on-year in November amid lending curbs and rising interest rates, government data showed Tuesday.

The number of homes changing hands nationwide stood at 67,159 in November, down 42.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Compared with the previous month, the November tally was down 10.8 percent.

The number of home transactions in the greater Seoul area, which includes the western port city of Incheon and the adjacent province of Gyeonggi, shrank 35.9 percent, with that in the rest of the country plunging 46.1 percent.

November's nosedive came amid tighter restrictions on mortgages and rising lending rates in the wake of the central bank's hike in the country's benchmark interest rate.

Yonhap