[News in Numbers] Housing Price Gap 40 Times... '1.25 Billion vs 31 Million'

Last year, the price difference between the top 10% and the bottom 10% of house prices reached 40 times. This indicates a continuing polarization of assets such as real estate.

According to the "2023 Housing Ownership Statistics" released by Statistics Korea, the average housing asset value (based on publicly announced prices) of households owning houses last year was 321 million KRW, an increase of 6 million KRW from 315 million KRW a year earlier.

Among them, the average housing asset value of the top 10% of households by asset value rose by 40 million KRW to 1.255 billion KRW compared to the previous year.

During the same period, the average housing asset value of the bottom 10% increased by 1 million KRW to 31 million KRW.

The price gap between the top and bottom was 40.5 times, amounting to a difference of over 1.2 billion KRW.

Households with more expensive homes also owned more houses.

Households owning houses had an average of 1.35 houses. Among them, the bottom 10% by housing asset value owned an average of 0.98 houses, while the top 10% owned 2.37 houses on average.

Seoul Walking Column - A residential complex in downtown Seoul where apartments and houses coexist. Photo by Yongjun Cho jun21@

Looking in detail at the status by housing asset value, households with housing assets of 60 million KRW or less owned an average of 0.99 houses. Those with 60 million to 150 million KRW owned 1.11 houses, and those with 150 million to 300 million KRW owned 1.24 houses.

The number of houses owned increased as housing asset value rose: households with 300 million to 600 million KRW owned an average of 1.46 houses, those with 600 million to 1.2 billion KRW owned 1.89 houses on average, and households with housing assets exceeding 1.2 billion KRW owned an average of 3.11 houses.

Meanwhile, the number of people who increased their housing ownership last year compared to the previous year was 1,026,000.

Among them, the majority, 981,000 people, increased ownership by one house, 34,000 people increased by two houses, and 4,000 people increased by five or more houses.

During the same period, 556,000 people decreased their housing ownership, of whom 528,000 reduced by one house, 20,000 by two houses, and 3,000 by five or more houses.