New apartments in area south of Seoul chosen as South Korea's top product of 2006

New apartments being built in a southern suburb of Seoul are the top product among South Korean consumers this year, a survey found Wednesday.

The most popular product of 2006 is a series of new apartments in Pangyo, a new commuter town located south of Seoul, Samsung Economic Research Institute said in the annual survey of "top 10 hits" among the South Korean public.

Despite the government's efforts to cool the property market, rising apartment prices in Seoul and its neighboring areas have been the biggest concern for South Koreans this year.

As of mid-December, apartment prices in Seoul and adjacent areas climbed 27.3 percent from a year ago, Real Estate 114, a real estate information provider, said on its Web site.

Because of its proximity to Seoul's affluent Gangnam district, the government's new apartment project in Pangyo drew hundreds of thousands of bidders who want to earn windfall investment gains.

In Gangnam and Gwacheon, north of Pangyo, a typical 33-square-meter apartment is priced at about 1 billion won (US$1.07 million), due to expected gains when the apartment is reconstructed.

The property boom was originally sparked by the government's policy of low interest rates aimed at boosting economic growth, in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial turmoil.

However, the government's "flip-flop" policy on the property market has been widely cited as one of the key reasons for the unusually higher apartment prices, which some economists call a bubble.

Since President Roh Moo-hyun took office in early 2003, apartment prices in Seoul and its neighboring areas jumped more than 70 percent on average, Real Estate 114 said.

Other top 10 products included slim mobile phones, low-alcohol soju, movies "King and the Clown" and "Host" as well as the skinny fashion trend and B-boy dancers, the economic institute said.

Seoul, Dec. 20 (Yonhap News)