Housing prices on downward trend after peak: finance minister

South Korea's finance minister said Wednesday the country's housing prices are on a downward trend after being stabilized amid the central bank's rate hikes and tighter lending rules.

Minister Hong Nam-ki said the government will implement its real estate policy with a focus on expanding the home supply and rooting out property speculation in a bid to support a fall in home prices.

"Stabilizing trends of housing prices have become more evident, and price falls have been accelerating," Hong said at a meeting on the housing policy.

"A set of data backed people's increased perception that the housing market has passed its inflection point and entered the downward trend," he said.

Sale prices of apartments in Seoul fell 0.02 percent in the third week of February from a week earlier, marking the fourth straight week of decline, according to the Korea Real Estate Board.

Hong has warned of a fall in home prices, saying that excessive demand for homebuying could decline, affected by the central bank's rate hikes and tighter lending rules.

Last month, the Bank of Korea raised the policy rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.25 percent. It marked the third rate increase since it made its first pandemic-era rate hike in August last year.

Since July last year, the financial regulator has applied stricter lending calculations for mortgage loans to put a lid on growing household debt.

South Korea's housing prices shot up in recent years as demand for home purchases remained strong due to expectations for further rises in home prices.

In February last year, the government unveiled a plan to increase the number of new homes by up to 836,000 nationwide in the next four years. (Yonhap)