A view of an apartment in Seoul from the Namsan Observatory in Seoul, South Korea. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – Over 85,000 foreign nationals own a house in South Korea, with Chinese possessing more than half of real estate properties held by foreigners in the country, government data showed Wednesday.
A total of 85,358 foreign nationals owned a house in South Korea as of end-June, up 4.6 percent from the corresponding figure from six months earlier, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Nearly 93.5 percent of the foreigners had ownership of a single house here, while 5.2 percent owned two houses.
The foreigners owned a combined 87,223 houses, which account for 0.46 percent of all the houses in the country.
This image provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport shows the number of houses in South Korea owned by foreign nationals. (Yonhap)
Of the 87,223 houses, Chinese nationals owned 47,327, or 54.3 percent, while Americans owned 20,469, or 23.5 percent, Canadians 5,959, or 6.8 percent, and Taiwanese 3,286, or 3.8 percent.
More than 73 percent of foreigner-owned houses were located in the greater Seoul area, with 38 percent in Gyeonggi Province, 25.6 percent in Seoul and 9.7 percent in Incheon.
The land ministry said it will thoroughly look into foreigners’ real estate trading in South Korea to crack down on land speculation cases.
(Yonhap)
