SEJONG -- The number of South Koreans who moved to different parts of the country grew in August, as more people were forced to change their residences due to rising housing prices, government data showed Wednesday.

The number of people who changed their residences rose 8.7 percent last month from a year earlier to 615,000, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The population mobility rate -- the number of those relocating per 100 people -- remained at 14.1 percent in August, up 1.2 percentage points from the same period the previous year.

The cost of houses in Seoul has been on a steady rise despite a series of measures to rein in surging prices, including tightened home mortgages.

The government's stricter regulations on mortgage loans, an effort to reduce household debt, affected population mobility.

In July, home transactions in South Korea reached a new all-time high.

The number of homes changing hands nationwide stood at 141,419 last month, up 110 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. (Yonhap)