Construction permits issued for new homes surged more than two-fold in September to the year before, the government said Sunday, a strong sign of recovery in the country's real estate market.

The number of new home permits issued came to 87,955 units last month, up 133.1 percent from 37,726 from the year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

September marked the ninth consecutive month of on-year increase, with the pace accelerating from a 41.2 percent spike tallied for the previous month.

"The number of home construction permits has been on the rise since January of this year amid recovery in the local property market," the ministry said in a press release.

The strong demand for new homes was more visible in the capital region that includes the western port city of Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, which together with Seoul are home to nearly half of the country's population 50 million.

In September, new home permits issued in the capital region jumped 143 percent on-year to 51,215 units, while permits issued in rural areas spiked 120.6 percent to 36,740.

For the nine months of 2015, the number of housing construction permits issued by authorities rose 53.7 percent on-year to 540,140 units vis-a-vis 351,328 reported for the same period last year.

Also indicating an apparent construction boom in Seoul, the number of actual groundbreakings for new homes in the capital region came to 26,787 last month, up 88.7 percent from a year before, while those in rural areas backtracked 28.5 percent on-year to 23,411. For the country as a whole, groundbreaking numbers rose 7 percent on-year to 50,198. (Yonhap)