Land prices in South Korea rose at a slower clip in the first quarter of 2022 from three months earlier as transactions tanked, data showed Friday.

Land prices in Asia's fourth-largest economy inched up 0.91 percent on-year in the January-March period, down from a 1.03 percent increase in the last quarter of 2021, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Korea Real Estate Board.

It was a tad lower than the 0.96 percent on-year hike recorded during the same period a year earlier.

Land prices in Seoul and the adjacent Gyeonggi Province expanded 1.01 percent in the three-month period, with those in the rest of the country inching up 0.72 percent.

The administrative capital of Sejong, central South Korea, chalked up the biggest growth rate of 1.32 percent. Land prices in Seoul gained 1.08 percent, with those in Busan, South Korea's second-largest city on the southeast coast, rising 0.91 percent.

Meanwhile, the area of land traded across the nation plunged 26.9 percent on-year to 476.6 square kilometers in the first quarter. It was also down 19.3 percent from three months earlier, according to the data. (Yonhap)