Housing Prices in Seoul and Tokyo?

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2020/01/10/2020011001878.html

In normal supply and demand, usually when there is a surplus, there is usually a move to a reduction in prices. There seems to be a housing surplus in the Seoul area, but prices are not coming down, or not a significant decrease in price.

Part of that might be because there are two groups of consumers in the housing market; regular families who want to buy a new  and investors/speculators. The investors/speculators seem to have a more significant affect on the housing market than the families. As such prices have remained high for sometime.

The government over many years has tried to calm the overheated housing market, but so far with no success. Even to the point of limiting investors to the number of homes they could purchase.

Also, for many years the government subsidized construction of new housing projects as a stimulus for the economy, as housing and construction are both significant factors in economic growth


But what about in Japan? It seems, from news reports, there is a surplus of homes that are not being used. So would we call this a housing surplus too? I would think that the used homes, most likely are in the rural areas and not so much in the major metropolitan areas where most people want to live.



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