House prices drop 1.4 percent in October

Actual transaction prices of houses in South Korea declined last month, a state-run think tank said Wednesday, indicating that the country’s property market slump continues.

According to a report by the Korea Development Institute, the actual transaction prices of houses in capital Seoul dropped 4.6 percent on-year in October, while those in its surrounding Gyeonggi Province and Incheon fell 4.5 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.

Transaction prices of houses outside the metropolitan area, meanwhile, inched up 0.5 percent, bringing the average price decline to 1.4 percent, the report showed.

In particular, volume of transactions of apartments, a popular type of housing in Korea, plunged 32.2 percent on-year in September, also heightening the slump in the housing sector.

The report comes as South Korea is facing a prolonged housing market slump prompted by the slowing economy and frozen transactions. The government has been pushing to stimulate the market through diverse ways, including tax benefits, on worries that its collapse could bring the economy down with it. (Yonhap News)