South Korea's home rental transactions shrank 4.3 percent on-month in August due mainly to a seasonal decline in demand, the government said Monday.

In August, the number of home rental transactions reached 117,280 units, down from 122,552 units in July, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said.

Compared with the year before, transactions rose 4.4 percent on-year, with the number rising 1.6 percent to 1,011,164 units in the first eight months of the year vis-a-vis the same period in 2014.

"August is usually a weak month for rental transactions, while the trend by a growing number of homeowners to switch from jeonse to monthly rent may have played a part in weaker numbers," a ministry official said.

Jeonse is a unique South Korean rental system where the tenant gives the homeowner a lump sum of money to lease a home without paying regular rent. This money is then returned after the lease expires.

The ministry said rental transactions involving monthly rent rose 5.5 percent on-year in August. Leasing of homes under the monthly rent system made up 45.6 percent of transactions last month.

The latest tally also showed all rental transactions for August falling across the board, with Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi region falling 2.7 percent compared with July, while the numbers for the rest of the country dropped 7.4 percent. (Yonhap)