À̹ÌÁö È®´ë The median price of a house in Seoul was higher than that of Tokyo last year, a report showed Sunday.
According to housing price statistics report prepared by Rep. Park Kwang-on of the ruling Democratic Party, the median price of a house in Seoul, capital and the largest city in South Korea stood at 434,850,000 won ($395,500) as of Dec. 31, 2016. The median house price refers to house price right in the middle of all house prices lined up from the lowest to the highest.
The median price of a home in Seoul was 123,490,000 won higher than that of Tokyo, Japanese capital and 236,770,000 higher than that of Osaka, Japan¡¯s another major city. When compared to world¡¯s other expensive cities, it stood on par with Washington D.C., the U.S (438,830,000 won) and New York City (443,400,000 won). But Seoul¡¯s home price was lower than those in Hong Kong and London, the U.K with 774,860,000 won and 644,730,000 won, respectively.
Given the Korea Statistics¡¯ data on the average annual income of an urban household with two or more people at 47,280,000 won, it would take 9.2 years to buy a median-priced home in Seoul. It is three to five years longer than other global metropolitan cities. A resident in Tokyo needs 4.7 years to buy a house while it takes 4.8 years in Singapore and 5.7 years in New York.
The median price of a home in Korea stood at 228,530,000 won, and Seoul¡¯s median home price was 1.9 times higher than the national average.
By Sohn Dong-woo and Cho Jeehyun
[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]