Nationwide Real Estate Investment Boom Leads to Double-Digit Decline in Unsold Houses

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] As of the end of last month, the number of unsold houses nationwide decreased by 11.5% compared to the previous month. Analysts suggest that demand is turning to unsold houses as new housing supply has not expanded in the metropolitan area including Seoul and other provinces.

On the 30th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that the total number of unsold houses nationwide was 23,620 units as of the end of last month. This is a decrease of 11.5% (3,083 units) compared to 26,703 units in October, the previous month.

By region, the metropolitan area had 3,183 units, and the provinces had 20,437 units, with the provinces accounting for an overwhelming share of unsold houses.

In the metropolitan area, the number decreased by 425 units (11.8%) from 3,607 units in the previous month, and in the provinces, it decreased by 2,659 units (11.5%) from 23,096 units in the previous month. Both the metropolitan area and provinces are showing a decreasing trend in unsold houses.

In particular, among the 17 metropolitan local governments nationwide, Sejong was the only area with no unsold houses. Sejong has had zero unsold houses for four consecutive years since May 2016, after the last three unsold houses remaining in April 2016 were all sold.

The region with the highest decrease in unsold houses in the provinces was Gwangju Metropolitan City. Gwangju decreased by 157 units (64.1%) from 245 units in the previous month to 88 units. This was followed by Daegu Metropolitan City with 476 units (41.6%) and Gyeongnam with 1,461 units (20.7%).

The local government with the most unsold houses nationwide was Gyeongnam. Currently, Gyeongnam has 5,581 unsold houses. The number of unsold houses in Gyeongnam, which was 12,269 units at the end of last year, has been decreasing, falling below 10,000 units to 9,971 units in May.

By size, there were 1,016 unsold medium-to-large houses exceeding the 'national housing size' of 85㎡, and 22,604 unsold small-to-medium houses below that size. Medium-to-large houses decreased by 26.7% (370 units), and small-to-medium houses decreased by 10.7% (2,713 units) compared to the previous month.

Post-construction unsold houses, known as 'malignant unsold houses,' numbered 14,060 units, a decrease of 12.6% (2,024 units) from 16,084 units in the previous month.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.