Housing Values

[Anchor Lead]

Appraised prices of 13 million apartments and multi-unit housings have been released. Appraised housing values have risen 5.32% nationwide, with those in Seoul spiking by more than 14%, widening the housing price gaps between Seoul and other regions.

[Pkg]

The government released the appraised prices of nearly 13.4 million apartments, multi-unit buildings, and other shared housings nationwide. The national average increase rate stood at 5.32%, slightly higher than last year's 5.02%. Prices in Seoul topped the list at 14.17%, nearly three times the national average. Increases in appraised housing values in Gwangju and Daegu were also higher than the national average, registering in the 9% and 6% ranges, respectively. In contrast, Ulsan, hit hardest by an economic downturn, suffered one of the biggest losses in housing value with 10.5%. Geoje and Gimhae in southern Korea also saw their housing prices plummet by more than 10% due to their struggling shipbuilding industry. The increases in appraised prices were bigger for high-end homes. Appraised values of homes between 1.2 billion and 1.5 billion won rose 18.15% and those between 900 million and 1.2 billion won 17.61%, but the prices of apartments in the lower brackets rose only 3.9%

[Soundbite] Lee Moon-ki(Housing and Land Office, Min of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) : "The prices of some high-end housings, which had shown a big gap between the appraised prices and actual transaction prices, have been adjusted in accordance with the current situation."

The appraised prices of real estates are used in calculating sixty financial programs, including the ownership tax, health insurance policies, and basic pension plans.