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| Apartment complexes and buildings in southern Seoul / Newsis |
By Anna J. Park
The government plans to release statistics of the real estate properties in Korea held by foreigners starting from the first quarter of next year, with the goal of curbing housing speculation by foreigners.
According to the land ministry's key budget plans for next year submitted to Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Rep. Park Sang-hyuk, 300 million won ($217,000) has been allocated to drawing up statistics on housing owned by foreign nationals over the next year.
Out of the total of 17.8 billion won allocated to surveys and statistics of housing in Korea in next year's budget, 300 million won will be spent exclusively to collect data on the real estate holdings of foreign nationals.
It is the first time ever that the Korean government has allocated money solely for the purpose of surveying and compiling statistics on foreigners' housing ownership in Korea.
"The reason for allocating the money in the budget plan is to respond properly to foreigners' housing speculation by establishing a specified database of foreigners' real estate purchases," the land ministry explained.
Currently, the government draws up statistics on land transactions by foreign nationals every six months, but no statistics have been officially drawn up regarding their real estate holdings. The need for such statistics has emerged in the past few years, as some local residents have complained that foreign nationals are free from various layers of real estate regulations when purchasing housing in Korea.
Responding to these complaints, the land ministry said that over half of the domestic 20,028 real estate transactions by foreign nationals, from the start of 2020 to May 2022, are suspected to be related to housing speculation. The government is also investigating multiple cases of real estate purchases by foreign nationals that are suspected of constituting such speculation.
"With the release of statistics on foreigners' real estate properties, the government is required to strengthen measures to prevent housing speculation in the country by foreigners," Park said.
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