New housing permits in Korea spiked 18.3 percent from a year earlier in March, data showed Tuesday, amid government efforts to prop up the local real estate market.
The number of new home permits issued came to 61,750 last month, up from 52,200 in the same month last year, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Apartment complex in Seoul (Yonhap)
March marked the 15th consecutive month of on-year increase in new home permits.
The sharp rise in March was driven by a robust gain in permits issued in provincial areas.
Rural areas saw their housing permits soar 62.1 percent on-year to 33,319 last month, while construction permits issued in the capital region, including Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, fell 10.2 percent to 28,431.
For the first three months of 2016, the number of housing construction permits issued surged 37.2 percent to 163,009 from 118,772 in the same period last year.
The number of actual groundbreakings, on the other hand, slipped 0.9 percent on-year to 54,475 in March, still reflecting a high demand for new homes here.
The apparent boom in the real estate market follows a series of government measures to help revitalize the construction market and the entire economy.
Such steps included eased regulations on the reconstruction of old homes, along with eased rules on debt-to-income and loan-to-value ratios to facilitate borrowing.
The country's central bank also has kept its policy rate frozen at record low 1.5 percent since June 2015, further boosting people's access to funds needed to buy or rent homes. (Yonhap)
