Young Koreans need 86 years to buy house in Seoul: research

The study, published on Monday, is based on official statistics on household finances and real estate data on the market, Yonhap reported.

The results showed that the average savings of people aged 20-29 in South Korea last year stayed at 13.9 million won (US$10,000).

Meanwhile, the average transaction price for an apartment in Seoul is 1.2 billion won ($873,000).

Thus, each Korean worker in their 20s will need to save for 86.4 years to buy an apartment in the capital, twice as long as a similar estimate in 2014, due to sharp increases in real estate prices in recent years, the report said.

According to Maeil Business Newspaper, in the past 10 years, the income growth rate of those in their 20s was 21.02%, which was less than half of the total age group. The growth rate of available savings (12.65%) of this age group was also significantly lower than that of the total (64.90%).