S. Korea to prioritize supplying homes to stabilize prices: minister

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Wednesday the government will focus on supplying homes as planned in the second half in a bid to curb high-flying home prices.

The minister said a tight supply for homes has somewhat eased since August as more people have begun to move into newly built apartments.

"Increasing housing supply sufficiently is a key to stabilizing the property market," Hong said at a government meeting on the housing market.

"The government will do its best to provide quality homes as planned in the second half," he added.

The government has unleashed a series of comprehensive measures to stem rising home prices, but the regulations resulted in only a short-term letup.

Prices of apartments in the greater Seoul grew more than 1 percent for the seventh straight month in July as demand for home purchases remains strong.

Hong has repeatedly warned of potential falls in housing prices, saying that excessive demand for home buying could ease amid the central bank's move toward monetary tightening and stricter regulations on household lending.

Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Lee Ju-yeol hinted at a rate hike within this year, stressing the need to orderly reverse its easy-monetary policy.

In July, the BOK froze its policy rate at a record low of 0.5 percent amid the fourth wave of the pandemic. Its next rate-setting meeting will be scheduled for Thursday.

The financial regulator is set to further tighten household lending in a bid to put the brakes on the ballooning household debt. The country's household credit hit a record high of 1,805.9 trillion won ($1.54 trillion) as of June. (Yonhap)