Housing starts in fiscal 2009 ended in March slipped below 800,000 units for the first time since 1964, hit by sluggish demand exacerbated by the global economic slump, the infrastructure ministry said Friday.
Starts fell 25.4 percent from a year earlier to 775,277 units in the reporting year, the sharpest rate of decline since the 1974 oil crisis, Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry said.