According to Radio Free Asia:
Houses in impoverished North Korea are fully owned by the government and trading on them is forbidden. But some dwellers “sell” their homes illegally with the approval of corrupt officials to cash in on the acute shortage of homes.
Sources in provinces along North Korea’s border with China told RFA’s Korean Service that the value of their home transactions had fallen by as high as 85 percent from last summer.
“Housing prices in Gilju-gun, North Hamgyong province, dropped to around U.S. $500 from what was U.S. $3,300 last summer,” a source from the province told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity.
He said that in North Hamgyong’s Cheongjin city, the trading price for a two-bedroom home had plummeted to around U.S. $3,300 from U.S. $8,300 in the summer last year, and yet no buyers were showing any interest.
Another source from Yanggang said housing prices in his province had been similarly affected in the last several months.
“I was barely able to afford my house near the Yalu River [separating North Korea from China] at around U.S. $3,300 early last year,” he said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The trading price of my house, which was still U.S. $3,300 in August last year, has now dropped to about U.S. $990.”
The Yanggang source said the housing crash began in the fall in the capital Pyongyang and had led to widespread unease because the cause of the depreciation remained unknown.
He added that it was impossible to guess how far prices would drop.
Other sources said that the market crash had led to increased tension in the affected areas.
Read the full story here:
Housing Prices in North Korea Plunge on Black Market
RFA
2014-1-9
