Korea Tour : Foreign ownership of land increase by 1.7%

 

 

Foreigners own 232 square kilometers of land in South Korea as of the end of June, 2016 or 0.2 percent of the country's total land area, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) reported on December, 23rd, 2016.

 

Compared to last December, the size of foreigner-owned land went up 4 square kilometers, or 1.7 percent, but its total value dropped 310 billion won to 32.3 trillion won ($26.9 billion).

 

China's Anbang Insurance Group played a major part in the increase of foreign ownership as it took over 2.5 square kilometers of land initially owned by its newly-acquired Korean unit, Tong Yang Life Insurance.

 

Broken down by nationality, Americans owned the most land at 51 percent followed by Europeans with 9.2 percent, Japanese with 8.1 percent and Chinese with 7.2 percent.

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A majority of the foreign owners were ethnic Koreans with foreign nationalities or joint ventures between Korean and offshore companies.

 

Foreigners own land mostly in Gyeonggi Province with 38.4 square kilometers, closely followed by South Jeolla Province with 38 square kilometers and North Gyeongsang Province with 34.8 square kilometers.

 

Meantime, foreign investors held just 2.7 square kilometers of land in Seoul.

 

"Land in Seoul is so expensive and not much of it is up for sale. By contrast, the surrounding Gyeonggi Province is spacious and much of its land is available," an MLIT official said.

 

It is noted that  foreign ownership of land on Jeju Island, the country's southernmost province, went down by 218,000 square meters during the January to June period, the first decrease since 2002 when the government started to compile related data.

 

Over the past years, Chinese have snapped up land on Jeju Island ― the scenic tourist attraction where they can stay for up to 30 days without a visa ― en masse which led to an abrupt appreciation of property prices there.
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The size of Chinese-owned land in Jeju plunged by around 510,000 square meters during the first half of the year as resentment by Jeju residents sprang up against the Chinese shopping spree for land.

 

However, amongst foreign investors, Chinese owned the largest amount of land on Jeju Island at 41.9 percent followed by Americans with 18.1 percent and Japanese with 11.6 percent, accounting for 1.1 percent of its total area.