South Korea home-building boom may lead to housing glut

Yongin

IN Yongin, a satellite city south of Seoul, orange construction cranes are racing to build gleaming new high-rises, but realtor Kim Woong-jib says he is pointing would-be apartment buyers to older buildings.

The city of a million people has 5,301 unsold new residential units, government data shows, the most in South Korea and a symptom of a growing housing glut that is worrying policymakers.

Developers, egged-on by interest rates at all-time lows, are building apartments at a record pace, one bright spot in an otherwise sluggish economy.

But the home-building boom has fuelled a surge in borrowing. South Korea's household debt, alr…