[2024 National Audit] "Construction Market is Difficult"... Domestic Construction Orders This Year at Risk of 200 Trillion Won

Ahn Tae-jun, Democratic Party Lawmaker, "Urgent Need for Measures to Secure Orders"

Construction Orders Amount at 122.4 Trillion KRW as of End of August
Projected 184.5 Trillion KRW by Year-End

Three-Year Average 228 Trillion KRW
Concern Over Up to 45 Trillion KRW Decrease This Year

When crossing the Banpo Bridge in Seoul, you can see new apartments, old apartments, and apartments under construction all at once in the Sinbanpo area. The new apartments on the left are Acro Riverview Sinbanpo, the low old apartments on the right are Sinbanpo 2nd Complex, and the apartments under construction in the back are the Maple Xi construction site. Photo by Huh Younghan younghan@

As the domestic construction market freezes solidly, concerns have been raised that this year's domestic construction orders could decrease by up to 45 trillion won compared to the average of the past three years.

On the 24th, Ahn Tae-jun, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, confirmed through the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's statistical portal that the construction orders up to August this year amounted to 122.4013 trillion won.

Domestic construction orders have recorded over 200 trillion won annually since 2020, when they reached 208.9906 trillion won. In particular, in 2022, they showed a sharp increase, approaching 250 trillion won.

However, last year, orders sharply dropped to around 206 trillion won, indicating a significant contraction in the construction market. Ahn said, "Although the orders have maintained around 122 trillion won up to August this year, the situation does not seem to have improved significantly compared to last year. If the performance up to August is averaged arithmetically, domestic construction orders are expected to reach 184.5 trillion won by December, which is up to 45 trillion won less than the recent three-year average of 228 trillion won."

By sector, the public domain maintained an average level with 35.3282 trillion won, but the private sector was significantly lower than usual at around 87 trillion won.

According to the Monthly Construction Market Trends recently released by the Korea Construction Industry Research Institute, the orders in August were 10.2 trillion won, down 4.9 trillion won from the recent three-year average of 15.1 trillion won, and other construction market indicators also showed a downward trend, suggesting that it will be difficult for construction orders to recover this year.

Ahn stated, "When the construction market is not doing well, the public sector should pursue more active economic stimulus measures, but looking at the public sector orders, they are maintaining a level similar to previous years, so more aggressive policy implementation is necessary."

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