Foreign property ownership up six-fold in past decade

SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- Local property ownership by foreigners has risen almost
six-fold in the past 10 years, a parliamentary audit report submitted by the
government said Monday.

The findings by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said foreign
nationals and companies owned 201.9 million square meters of land as of late
June, up from 38.0 million square meters of land in 1997.
The report forwarded to Rep. Lee Si-jong said total acquisition cost for the
39,341 separate properties bought by foreign nationals stood at 27.8 trillion won
(US$21.9 billion).
It also noted that 62 percent of all land holdings were concentrated in Seoul,
Incheon and Gyeonggi Province. The central part of the country around the capital
city is home to half of the country's 48 million population and a large part of
the wealth and economic activity.
The ministry then said that by nationality, 58 percent or 22,740 properties were
owned by U.S. citizens, with Chinese and Japanese nationals owning around 2,800
and 1,800 pieces of property each.