Seoul - Yonhap
President Lee Myung-bak expressed concern Tuesday that home rental prices are feared to spike in the fall again and instructed the Cabinet to study ways to curb them, his spokesman said. Earlier this year, home rental prices rose sharply, pulling up overall consumer prices. In April alone, rental prices jumped 12.5 percent from the same period last year, the sharpest increase in more than eight years. Experts have forecast a similar spike in the second half of the year.