Last year, the area of residential construction starts increased by about 7% compared to the previous year.
On the 30th, the Korea Construction Industry Research Institute (KOSCON) analyzed last year's construction start area, revealing that the residential construction start area was 26.9 million square meters, an increase of 6.8% compared to the previous year.
The area of residential construction starts exceeded 40 million square meters in 2020, with 40.3 million square meters and 46.8 million square meters in 2021. Afterward, it decreased to 34.7 million square meters in 2022 and further to 25.2 million square meters in 2023. Last year, it increased again by about 1.7 million square meters.
However, this level is about 70% compared to the average residential construction start area of 38 million square meters from 2001 to 2023.
Last year, the area of non-residential construction starts recorded a 3.8% increase, reaching 52.4 million square meters. This is about 80% of the average in previous years (66 million square meters from 2001 to 2023).
By region, the area of residential construction starts in the metropolitan area increased by 9.4% to 11.7 million square meters last year. While Seoul decreased by 3.5%, Incheon and Gyeonggi saw increases of 64.6% and 0.1%, respectively. The provinces recorded an increase of 4.9% to 15.15 million square meters compared to the previous year.
Park Cheol-han, a research fellow at KOSCON, noted, "There were seven regions where construction starts decreased last year, with most seeing declines of more than 2 to 3 years, excluding Gwangju. He explained that the areas where construction starts have diminished for a long time are likely to see a decrease in ongoing construction projects not only this year but also into next year."