Home prices in the capital city of Seoul jumped by the most in three months in February following the recent lifting of the land transaction permission system in some areas of Seoul, government data showed Monday.
Home prices in Seoul rose 0.18 percent in February from a month earlier, marking the biggest on-month gain since November when the figure rose 0.2 percent from the previous month, according to data from the Korea Real
Estate Board (REB).
On Feb. 13, the Seoul metropolitan government lifted part of the land transaction permission zones in some areas of affluent districts in southern Seoul, including Gangnam and Songpa, to boost home transactions.
The regulation required the Seoul government’s permission for transactions of properties that exceed a certain size in the subjected areas.
With the lifting, home prices in Songpa, Seocho and Gangnam, the three most affluent areas in southern Seoul, jumped 0.94 percent, 0.74 percent and 0.68 percent, respectively, from a month earlier in February, the REB data showed.
The deregulation measure in the capital city also appears to have pushed up the country’s household loans extended by local lenders.
Earlier data showed household loans extended by local banks came to 1,143.7 trillion won (US$787.34 billion) as of end-February, up 3.3 trillion won from a month earlier, which marked the first on-month increase in three months.
Source: Yonhap
