Wealthy South Koreans believed that a person should hold more than 6.7 billion won in assets in order to be qualified as a ‘rich person’. (image: Kobiz Media/Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — There are currently 323,000 rich people in South Korea who own financial assets worth more than 1 billion won (US$833,750), up by 13,000 since last year.
The KB Financial Group Institute of Management reported that the wealthy population in South Korea increased by 4.4 percent between 2017 and 2018, slowing down after reaching 14.4 percent growth between 2014 and 2017, possibly due to stock market fluctuations, mainly represented by a 17.3 percent drop in the KOSPI Index between 2017 and 2018.
Total value of financial assets owned by the wealthy population in South Korea was 2 quadrillion won ($1.7 trillion), down by 1.7 percent since the previous year.
South Korea’s wealthy population was concentrated in the Greater Seoul Metropolitan Area, accounting for as much as 69.6 percent of the total, with 145,000 residing in Seoul, 71,000 in Gyeonggi Province, and 10,000 in Incheon.
Almost half of those living in Seoul resided in the trendy area south of the Han River, including Seocho, Gangnam, and Songpa districts.
More than half of all assets held by the wealthy were real estate (53.7 percent), while financial assets, for the first time, dropped below 40 percent in proportion to the total assets, reflecting the hike of apartment prices in major locations and a drop in the stock market.
The wealthy population still holds larger amount of financial assets in terms of proportion than ordinary households (18.9 percent).
The average annual income of a wealthy household was 220 million won, 3.9 times the income made by ordinary households (57 million won), with 63 percent derived from labor income and 32.5 percent from property income.
Wealthy South Koreans believed that a person should hold more than 6.7 billion won in assets in order to be qualified as a ‘rich person’.
At 45.8 percent, slightly less than half of the wealthy population thought they were rich. Those with a higher amount of total assets thought of themselves to be rich.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
