One in Four Long-Term American Residents in Korea Owns a Home... Four Times the Rate of Chinese Nationals [Real Estate AtoZ]

Ministry Releases First Half-Year Statistics on Foreign Ownership of Land and Housing
27% of Long-Term Resident Americans Own Homes; Chinese Nationals at 7%
Chinese Nationals Lead in Number of Homes, Americans Lead in Land Area

It has been found that more than one in four Americans who reside in South Korea for an extended period own a home in the country. This figure is nearly four times higher than the proportion of Chinese nationals who own homes.

According to the statistics on foreign land and housing ownership in South Korea, released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on November 28, as of the end of June this year, there were 74,044 long-term resident Americans in the country, of whom 20,011 owned homes. This represents 27.0%. Among Chinese nationals, there were 860,711 long-term residents, with 62,087 owning homes, accounting for 7.2%.

By nationality, Chinese nationals owned the largest number of homes at 58,896 units, followed by Americans with 22,455 units. The discrepancy between the number of foreign nationals and the number of homes by nationality is due to cases where one person owns multiple homes or, conversely, where multiple people share ownership of a single home. If an individual holds even a partial share, it is counted as owning one home.

Apartment viewed from Namsan, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Following the United States and China, 5,310 Canadians owned 6,433 homes, and 3,070 Taiwanese nationals owned 3,392 homes. Among long-term residents, 24.1% of Canadians and 17.7% of Taiwanese nationals owned homes in South Korea. Overall, 102,477 foreigners owned a total of 104,065 homes in the country.

This represents a 3.8% increase compared to the end of last year. This accounts for 0.53% of the total number of homes in South Korea (19.65 million units). By region, the greater Seoul area accounted for a significant portion at 72.5%. Gyeonggi Province had the highest share at 39.2%, followed by Seoul at 23.2%, and Incheon at 10.1%. Among non-capital regions, South Chungcheong Province had the highest share at 6.2%.

The growth rate of foreign-owned homes has slowed compared to previous years. As of the end of June 2023, the semi-annual growth rate was 4.4%, and at the end of that year, it was 4.8%. At the end of June the following year, it was around 3.9%, and at the end of December, about 5.4%. In the first half of this year, the growth rate declined further. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport explained, "Considering that some areas in the greater Seoul area were designated as foreign land transaction permit zones in August this year, the growth rate is expected to decrease further by the end of the year."

At the "Ajou International Day" event held on the 6th at Ajou University in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, international students dressed in traditional costumes gathered together, enjoying themselves while taking photos. Photo by Yonhap News

The total land owned by foreigners amounted to 268,299,000 square meters, accounting for 0.27% of the country's total land area. This is a 0.1% increase compared to the end of last year. In terms of officially assessed value, it reached 33.9976 trillion won, up 1.5% over the same period. By nationality and area, Americans owned 143,008,000 square meters, representing 53.3% of all foreign-owned land. Chinese nationals held 21,505,000 square meters (8.0%), and Europeans held 18,932,000 square meters (7.1%).

By usage, other types of land such as forest and farmland accounted for a significant portion at 67.7%. Factory sites made up 22.0%, leisure sites 4.4%, and residential land 4.3%. By ownership entity, overseas Koreans with foreign nationality accounted for more than half at 55.4%. Foreign corporations followed at 33.6%, pure foreign nationals at 10.7%, and governments or organizations at 0.2%.