Construction of new apartment buildings hit an all-time low last year.

According to an analysis of the land ministry’s housing construction data by the real estate research firm Real Today on Friday, apartment buildings with 133-thousand-585 households were built in the first eleven months of last year.

The figure represents a 52-percent drop from a year earlier and is the lowest amount since 2011 when the nation started compiling related data.

The drop was steeper in the provinces than in the capital region.

Apartment building construction commenced for around 66-thousand households in the capital area, down 48 percent on-year during the period, while the comparable figure for provincial areas plunged 54 percent to just over 67-thousand households.

It marks the first time since 2011 that the figures for both the capital area and other regions fell below 70-thousand.

The drop is attributed to a soaring increase in construction costs amid rising prices of construction materials and labor rates.