House transactions in Seoul and surrounding areas rose remarkably in February from a year earlier as the prices for “jeonse” apartments in those areas are surging, government data showed Monday. Jeonse is a real estate system unique to South Korea, under which a tenant pays a large lump-sum deposit to lease a home instead of paying monthly rent.
The number of home transactions in the capital and adjacent areas rose 4.3 percent to 37,502 last month from the same same month of last year, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The figure marks the highest level for the month of February since 2006 when the ministry began collecting related data.
In Seoul alone, sales of homes totaled 12,990, up 10.4 percent from a year earlier.
However, house transactions in provincial areas decreased 4.3 percent to 41,362 over the cited period.
When combined, home transactions nationwide inched down 0.4 percent to 78,864 on-year last month largely due to the Lunar New Year holiday which fell on Feb. 18-20 this year, ministry officials said.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
