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| A view over apartment complexes in southern Seoul in May / Newsis |
By Anna J. Park
Chinese people account for over 54 percent of homes owned by foreigners in Korea, while Americans account for 24 percent of them, according to the land ministry's latest data on foreign ownership of land and housing in Korea.
Data revealed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Wednesday, show foreign nationals own 83,512 homes in Korea as of the end of last year, accounting for 0.4 percent of all residential property in the country.
This is the first time that statistics on homes owned by foreigners have been officially announced by the government. So far, the land ministry had been announcing statistics on a regular basis on foreign land ownership, but not the number of homes in the country owned by foreigners. The disclosure of the data is ascribed to the Yoon administration's pledge to regulate foreigners' speculative housing transactions.
By category, 91 percent of the homes owned by foreigners are in multi-complex housing, such as apartments, while the other 9 percent are single-family detached houses.
By region, 73 percent of the homes held by foreigners are located in metropolitan areas, including Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.
While 93.5 percent of the foreign homeowners turn out to hold only one residence, another 5 percent hold two residences. The remaining 1.5 percent hold over three.
With regard to land, foreigners hold 264 million square meters in Korea, which is about 0.26 percent of the entire land area of Korea. The figure shows an increase of 1.8 percent, compared to the previous year.
Americans hold the largest amount of land, at 53.4 percent, followed by Chinese at 7.8 percent.
By region, 18.4 percent of the land owned by foreigners is located in Gyeonggi Province, followed by 14.8 percent located in South Jeolla Province and 14 percent in North Gyeongsang Province.
The land ministry aims to continue monitoring foreigners' housing and land transactions to prevent speculative moves.
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