South Korea's construction permits fell last year as the government tightened regulation to curb housing price, a government report showed Tuesday.

The surface area of permitted construction came in at 162.85 million square meters in 2018, down 6.2 percent from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The construction permits in the capital Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan area declined 10.7 percent, with the figure in the countryside sliding 2.3 percent.

It came as the government announced a set of measures to control speculative investment in the real estate market in a bid to curb soaring housing price.

Meanwhile, the area of completed construction grew 8.5 percent over the year to 153.39 million square meters last year due to a high number of apartments, whose construction was launched two to three years ago.