The price gap between luxury homes and cheaper houses fell to the lowest level in over five years in June as demand for smaller affordable homes increased from people opting to buy rather than pay rising rent, real estate data showed Tuesday.

According to the data provided by Kookmin Bank, the house quintile share price dipped to 4.9 in June, the lowest since 8.4 in December 2008 when the bank began to release the index.

The figure is down 0.1 percentage point from the previous month.

The house price index is derived by dividing the average price of the top 20 percent of homes by the average of the bottom 20 percent to measure the price difference. The quintile share price indices nearing zero represent a smaller gap between the top and bottom groups. (Yonhap)