Such a drop was more visible in the Seoul metropolitan area, where the number of permits for new houses dipped 29.7 percent on-year. The Seoul metropolitan area, which is home to more than 40 percent of the country's 51.6 million people, includes the capital city, the western port city of Incheon and the entire Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul. Rural areas, meanwhile, saw their housing permits jump 15.6 percent on-year to 32,491 last month, according to the data.

The growth of new housing permits was largely forecast to lose momentum this year after spiking 49 percent on-year to 765,000 in 2015. "It looks like the decrease started to show in May as the leftover supply from last year was reflected until April," said Lee Young-suk at the ministry's housing policy division.

The number of housing construction permits issued also dropped 14.5 percent on-year to 50,604 in May, according to the data. The number of actual groundbreakings, on the other hand, jumped 32.5 percent on-year to 36,785 in May, still reflecting a high demand for new homes here. (Yonhap)