The number of unsold homes nationwide came to 71,365 at the end of April, down 1.0 percent from a month earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The country's unsold houses began to grow from about 14,000 in late 2021 on the back of higher borrowing costs, but the number recently shrank from 75,438 in February to 72,104 in March and 71,365 in April amid a lower supply of new homes.
The central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.50 percent for the third time in May, after increasing it by 3.0 percentage points for one and a half years through January this year.
The number of unsold homes in the capital Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan area, in which about half of the country's population resides, expanded 5.2 percent from a month earlier to 11,609 at the end of April.
The number in other areas diminished 2.2 percent to 59,756 in the cited month.
For the first four months of this year, the number of housing permits stood at 123,371, down 23.3 percent compared to the same period of last year.
The number of housing starts tumbled 43.2 percent to 67,305 in the four-month period across the country.
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