Sixty percent of those that purchase apartments in the top four Gangnam districts in southern Seoul are residents of the area, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Appraisal Board showed Wednesday.

In December alone, a total of 2,339 transactions were carried out in the four districts -- Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa and Gangdong. Among them, 59.6 percent involved buyers with registered residencies in one of the four districts. Some 18.9 percent were residents of other districts in Seoul and 14.4 percent were from surrounding metropolitan areas. Only 7.1 percent were from other regions in Korea.

A ministry official said that while the prices of Seoul apartments, particularly among Gangnam complexes, skyrocketed with an increased number of transactions, the proportion of buyers from other regions -- many of whom are deemed to make purchases for investment purposes -- has showed a notable decline since the government’s Aug. 2 anti-speculation measures. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)