Seoul's average apartment price jumps twofold under Moon govt.: civic group

The average price of Seoul apartments has soared more than twofold in about five years under the current Moon Jae-in administration, according to a civic group analysis Wednesday.

According to the analysis by the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ), an apartment in Seoul fetched 43.09 million won ($36,590) per pyeong, or 3.3 square meters, on average as of November, up 109 percent compared to May 2017 when Moon was sworn into office.

The average price of 99.1-square-meter apartments in the capital also jumped from 620 million won in May 2017 to 1.29 billion won in November. CCEJ said it analyzed price changes of 117,000 units in a total of 75 sampled apartment compounds across Seoul.

According to the group, the time it takes for the average Seoul worker to buy an apartment by income savings also increased from 20 years to 38 years.

The presented data is the latest evidence of the Moon administration's failure to bring down runaway housing prices despite repeated pledges to do so.

The Moon government has implemented a string of anti-speculation measures, including steep hikes in real estate taxes, to rein in house prices in Seoul and other major cities, but surging apartment prices have been a major source of detriment to Moon's approval ratings. (Yonhap)