Population mobility up in April amid signs of recovery in property market

A woman looks over Seoul's skyline from Namsan Mountain, May 26. Yonhap

The number of Koreans who moved to different residences in the country increased in April from a year earlier amid signs of a recovery in the local property market, data showed Wednesday.

Around 533,000 people changed residences last month, up 17.1 percent from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The rebound apparently came amid a recovery in the property market, with the number of houses traded in March rising 0.9 percent on-year to 52,816 units, according to data compiled by the Korea Real Estate Board.

The population mobility rate, which means the percentage of those relocating per 100 people, also advanced 1.9 percentage points on-year to 12.7 percent last month.

By region, Seoul saw a net outflow of 5,842 people in April, while Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds the capital, and the northwestern port city of Incheon posted net inflows of 5,756 and 2,612, respectively.

In 2023, the number of people who changed residences fell to the lowest level in about 50 years amid population aging and a housing market slump. (Yonhap)