"Visited Jeonse, greeted with 'Nihao'... Over Half of Foreign Landlords Are Chinese"

Foreigners' Land and Housing Ownership Statistics as of Late June 2024

55% of Foreign-Owned Domestic Houses Are Owned by Chinese

53.3% of Foreign Landowners Are Americans

More than half of the foreigners owning multi-family or single-family houses (domestic housing) in South Korea are Chinese. The total number of domestic houses owned by foreigners was recorded at 95,058 units.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport disclosed the "Statistics on Foreigners' Land and Housing Ownership as of the end of June 2024" on the 29th. Foreigners' ownership of domestic housing accounts for about 0.49% of the total housing stock (19.55 million units based on last year's housing census).

Among these, the number of houses owned by Chinese nationals was the highest at 52,798 units (55.5%), slightly increasing from the end of last year (50,328 units, 55.0%). Following China were the United States with 21,360 units (22.5%), Canada with 6,225 units (6.5%), Taiwan with 3,307 units (3.5%), and Australia with 1,894 units (2.0%).

Of the houses owned by foreigners, 86,695 units (91.25%) were multi-family housing, and 8,363 units (8.8%) were single-family houses. Among the multi-family housing, apartments accounted for 57,467 units, and row houses/multi-unit houses accounted for 29,228 units.

Most of the houses owned by foreigners were concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area. Of all foreign-owned houses, 72.8% (69,247 units) were located in the metropolitan area, including Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province. By region, Gyeonggi accounted for 38.7% (36,755 units), Seoul 24.3% (23,085 units), and Incheon 9.9% (9,407 units). The proportion of houses owned in other provinces was 27.2% (25,811 units).

There were a total of 93,414 foreign homeowners, of whom 93.4% (87,291 people) owned one house. Those owning two houses accounted for 5.2% (4,881 people), and those owning three or more houses accounted for 1.3% (1,242 people).

Meanwhile, Americans owned the most land. Americans held 53.3% (141.55 million ㎡) of the total foreign-owned land (265.65 million ㎡). Other shares included Chinese at 7.9% (20.99 million ㎡), Europeans at 7.1% (18.84 million ㎡), and Japanese at 6.2% (16.35 million ㎡).

Foreign-owned land accounts for about 0.26% of the total land area of the country. This represents a 0.4% (1.05 million ㎡) increase compared to the end of last year. The publicly announced land value of these lands was 33.1981 trillion KRW, up 0.5% from 33.0288 trillion KRW at the end of last year.

Regionally, the land owned by foreigners was concentrated in Gyeonggi (56.28 million ㎡, 18.4%). This was followed by Jeonnam with 14.7% (39.14 million ㎡) and Gyeongbuk with 13.7% (36.33 million ㎡). The share in Seoul was only 1.2% (3.24 million ㎡).

The land use of these holdings was mostly other uses such as forest land and farmland, accounting for 67.5% (179.44 million ㎡). Other uses included factory sites at 22.2% (58.91 million ㎡), leisure sites at 4.5% (11.85 million ㎡), and residential sites at 4.2% (11.09 million ㎡).

By ownership type, overseas Koreans with foreign nationality owned 55.5% (147.45 million ㎡) of the total foreign-owned land. This was followed by foreign corporations at 33.9% (90.04 million ㎡), pure foreigners at 10.4% (27.62 million ㎡), and government/organizations at 0.2% (0.55 million ㎡).

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to strictly manage real estate speculative transactions by foreigners by linking the newly released statistics on foreigners' land and housing ownership with transaction reporting information to investigate suspicious abnormal transactions suspected of illegal activities.