SEOUL, July 14 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial authorities are preparing a sweeping overhaul of capital regulations to curb excessive bank lending in real estate and steer financial resources toward high-growth industries like artificial intelligence and biotechnology. According to industry officials on July 13, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) is reviewing plans to raise [...]
SEOUL, July 4 (Korea Bizwire) – Amid a prolonged slump in South Korea’s real estate market, the number of operating real estate agents has dropped to its lowest point in more than four years, underscoring the industry’s deepening struggles. According to data released Wednesday by the Korea Association of Realtors, the number of active licensed [...]
SEOUL, June 19 (Korea Bizwire) — The Bank of Korea has warned that continued efforts to stimulate construction investment through non-capital region housing projects may be exacerbating the nation’s widening housing market divide, rather than resolving it. In a report released Wednesday, the central bank argued that building new homes in low-demand regions outside the [...]
SEOUL, June 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The Bank of Korea has raised alarm over South Korea’s persistently high cost of essential goods, warning that it is outpacing both inflation and global averages, and is stifling consumer spending—particularly among low-income households. In a report released Wednesday, the central bank found that from the onset of the [...]
SEOUL, June 17 (Korea Bizwire) — On a weekday, a real estate agency in Seoul’s Mapo District was juggling multiple phone inquiries from prospective homebuyers but had little to offer, largely due to recent price hikes that encouraged home owners to withdraw their offerings in hope of further increases. “We are getting inquiries from over [...]
SEOUL, June 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced new measures on Sunday to enhance oversight of real estate transactions involving foreign nationals, aiming to address rising concerns over transparency, market disruption, and perceived unequal treatment of domestic buyers. As foreign ownership of property in South Korea increases, Seoul officials plan to scrutinize sources [...]
SEOUL, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of homes in South Korea owned by foreign nationals surpassed 100,000 for the first time in 2024, with Chinese buyers accounting for more than half, according to data released Friday by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. As of December 2024, foreigners owned 100,216 residential properties across [...]
SEOUL, May 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The country’s financial regulator said Tuesday that tighter rules on household loans will come into effect from July as planned amid still higher debt levels. According to the Financial Services Commission (FSC), tighter debt-service-ratio (DSR) rules will be applied to virtually all kinds of household debts, and the stress [...]
SEOUL, May 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Assisting senior citizens in liquidating their assets is essential to addressing elderly poverty, which, in turn, may help boost local spending, the chief of South Korea’s central bank said Thursday. Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Rhee Chang-yong made the point during a symposium co-hosted by the BOK and state-run [...]
SEOUL, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s home-sharing market, led by platforms like Airbnb, has surged more than twentyfold in just three years, with young adults emerging as the dominant force behind its rapid expansion. According to newly released data submitted by the National Tax Service to Rep. Park Sung-hoon of the National Assembly’s Strategy [...]