The local real estate market appears not to be very excited about the government‘s conditional approval of turning old apartments into 50-story buildings, due to its condition of donating more than a half of leftover units for public use, experts said Wednesday. Responding to the housing supply shortage, the government has decided to build more than 130,000 residential units in the capital city and adjacent areas over the next eight years. One of the key measures is a public reconstruct

South Korean stocks gathered ground for the third consecutive session on Wednesday to close at the highest level in nearly two years, as investor sentiment was buoyed by progress in US stimulus moves, analysts said. The Korean won rose against the greenback. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 31.89 points, or 1.4 percent, to finish at 2,311.86. Trading volume was high at 830 million shares worth 17.6 trillion won ($14.8 billion), with losers outpacing gainers 434 to

South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday, tracking overnight gains from Wall Street, as investor sentiment was buoyed by progress in US stimulus moves. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 6.67 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,286.64 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 0.62 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.35 percent. US lawmakers have been making efforts to reach an agreement on new stimul

South Korea's ruling party is pushing to impose heavy taxes on "speculative" foreigner buyers of apartments here amid their rising home ownership, officials said Wednesday. The move comes as the Democratic Party (DP) has vowed to create  countermeasures if necessary amid rising concerns over foreigners' apartment purchases for speculative purposes. According to the officials, a DP lawmaker has recently proposed a bill aimed at helping prevent foreign investors from speculating

In its first step since resuming operations, internet-only lender K bank unveiled a mobile mortgage loan service on Tuesday, allowing customers to borrow money without visiting brick-and-mortar banking branches. Utilizing data scraping technology to gather customers’ credit information online, the bank can easily calculate loan limits and interest rates for customers, officials said. It has also reduced the number of documents needed when taking mortgage loans -- the bank only requires

Buttressed by retail investors’ massive buying, Kosdaq closes at 52-week high

Korean lenders’ personal credit loans extended to borrowers gained 2.3 percent on-month in July, following the largest-ever increase in June, data showed Tuesday, fueling concerns on the nation’s heated housing market and the dire job market amid the coronavirus pandemic. Outstanding personal loans extended to individual borrowers by five major lenders here rose a combined 2.28 percent, or 2.7 trillion won ($2.26 billion), from the previous month to 120.2 trillion won last month, in

Government mobilizes all available housing sites, eases floor rules, but refuses to open up greenbelts

South Korean shares rallied Tuesday, nearly hitting a two-year high, as signs of economic recovery improved investor sentiment. The Korean won fell against the US dollar.  The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) jumped 28.93 points, or 1.29 percent, to close at 2,279.97, after briefly touching the year's high of 2,284.66 points. The closing marks the highest since 2,309.57 points on Oct. 2, 2018.  Trading volume was moderate at about 713 million shares worth some 9

Korean investors may seek pandemic discount, but widespread demand for safe haven assets makes bargains scarce, CBRE says

Kakao Games, the games unit of Korea’s mobile giant Kakao, has submitted a registration statement to the Financial Services Commission, with an intention of listing on the nation’s tech-heavy Kosdaq market in September. By issuing 16 million new common shares, at a price between 20,000 won and 24,000 won ($16.70-$20.10) each, the game developer looks to raise as much as 384 billion won, Kakao Games said Monday via DART-- the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosu

South Korean fashion firms based in Vietnam are expected to benefit from the free trade agreement (FTA) between the Southeast Asian country and the European Union, which went into effect this month, a report showed Tuesday. "Under the agreement, clothes producers based in Vietnam can enjoy the benefit of the latest FTA for goods made with South Korean materials," the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) said in its report. Clothes produced with Chinese materials, on the oth

South Korean shares opened sharply higher Tuesday, tracking an overnight Wall Street rally led by economic rebound hopes. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 23.35 points, or 1.04 percent, to 2,274.39 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Estimate-beating July manufacturing data in the United States, China and Europe raised hopes for a global economic rebound, despite the global rise in new coronavirus infections. The NASDAQ Composite advanced 1.47 percent to a fresh

SEJONG -- South Korea's annual inflation rose 0.3 percent in July, marking the first upturn in three months, as signs of a recovery in consumer sentiment have appeared amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The July tally compares with zero growth in June, according to the data released by Statistics Korea. The nation's inflation was unchanged on-month, the data showed. Core inflation, which excludes agricultural and petroleum products, rose 0.7 percent from a year earlier. Ut

Despite the nation’s monetary and fiscal policymakers’ measures to funnel liquidity into the market to offset risks from the coronavirus, cash flows into unexpected areas, such as bank deposits, have been fueling concerns of a liquidity trap, officials and experts recently noted. South Korea’s M2 money supply came to 3.065 quadrillion won ($2.56 trillion) in May, up 10.6 percent on-year, data from the Bank of Korea released in July showed. The figure marked the largest amou