Chinese account for 55 pct of homes owned by foreigners in S. Korea

Chinese nationals accounted for 55 percent of all housing owned by foreigners in South Korea, according to government data released Friday. According to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on home ownership of foreigners, Chinese nationals owned 50,328 out of a total of 91,453 housing units registered under foreign nationals in the country as of the end of 2023. Of Chinese-owned homes, the majority were apartments, tallied at 48,332 units, while 1,996 units were single-family homes. The number of homes owned by Chinese nationals grew 4.8 percent from six months ago. Following Chinese, Americans owned 20,947 units, or 22.9 percent of homes purchased by foreigners, followed by Canadians, Taiwanese and Australians, with 6.7 percent, 3.6 percent and 2 percent, respectively. The majority of housing owned by foreigners was located in and around the capital region. The largest number of these homes were in Gyeonggi Province, with 38.4 percent, followed by Seoul and Incheon, with 24.8 pe rcent and 9.8 percent, respectively. This marked the third time the government has released statistics on foreign ownership of housing. The administration started publishing these statistics last year as part of efforts to regulate speculative housing transactions by foreigners. Source: Yonhap News Agency