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The number of unsold homes nationwide has hit an all-time high. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs on Tuesday said the number of unsold houses across the country was 160,595 as of the end of July. This was the highest number since 1993, when the government began compiling monthly statistics. The record until now had been 159,471 in October 1995.
About 25 percent or 40,562 unsold homes as of July were fully completed, aggravating the financial difficulties of construction companies.
There were more unsold homes in the regions (137,618) than in the Seoul metropolitan area (22,977). Most were in Daegu (21,378), followed by Gyeonggi Province (20,514), South Gyeongsang Province (17,832), South Chungcheong Province (16,646), North Gyeongsang Province (15,177), and Busan (13,612).
The number was on the decline early this year, but began showing signs of increase since June, when there were 147,230 unsold homes. Cho Joon-hyun, an executive with the Construction Association of Korea, said, "The actual number of unsold homes will exceed 250,000 if we take the number of unreported housing units into consideration.¡± The funds construction companies have yet to retrieve are roughly estimated at W40 trillion (US$1=W1,207), he added.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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