Foreign landlords top 100,000, with Chinese owners holding 60,000 homes

[Financial News] As the number of foreigners living in South Korea rises, the number of homes and land they own in the country is also increasing. In the past year, about 8,000 foreigners newly purchased homes in South Korea. However, foreign housing transactions have dropped sharply since the government introduced land transaction permit rules for foreigners.
■ Both foreign-owned homes and land are on the rise
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 29th, foreigners owned a total of 108,231 homes in South Korea as of the end of 2025. That accounts for 0.55% of all homes in the country, which total 19.65 million. The figure was up by 8,015 homes from the end of 2024, when foreigners owned 100,216 homes.
By housing type, apartment-style multi-unit homes accounted for most of the total, at 99,013 units, while detached houses numbered 9,218.
By nationality, Chinese owners held the most homes, with 61,000. They were followed by the United States with 23,000, Canada with 6,500, Taiwan with 3,400, Vietnam and Australia with 2,000 each, and Japan with 1,600.
By region, Gyeonggi Province had the most with 42,000 homes, followed by Seoul with 25,000 and Incheon with 11,000. In particular, foreign home ownership was concentrated in areas near industrial complexes in the Seoul metropolitan area, including Bucheon, Ansan, Suwon, Siheung and Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province, as well as Bupyeong District in Incheon.
The area of land owned by foreigners in South Korea stood at 270.17 million square meters at the end of last year. That is equivalent to 0.27% of the country's total land area, up 0.9% from a year earlier. Based on officially assessed land values, the total was worth 34.1431 trillion won, up 2% from the previous year.
A MOLIT official said, "As the number of foreigners living in South Korea increases, foreign ownership of homes in the country is also gradually rising." The official added, "We will strictly manage speculative transactions by thoroughly investigating suspicious deals through links between foreign land and housing ownership statistics and transaction reporting data."
■ One year after foreign land transaction permits: transactions down 44%
Foreign housing transactions declined after the government tightened regulations. In August last year, MOLIT designated all of Seoul and major areas in the Seoul metropolitan area as Foreign Land Transaction Permit Zones to curb speculative purchases by foreigners. Since then, foreign housing transactions in Seoul have fallen 44%, from 968 cases to 545.
In particular, foreign housing transactions in the three Gangnam districts and Yongsan District, both Speculative Overheating Districts, fell 58%. Seocho District saw the steepest decline in Seoul, down 79% from 140 cases to 30.
Over the same period, foreign housing transactions fell 23% in Gyeonggi Province, from 2,857 to 2,205, and 30% in Incheon, from 792 to 554. By nationality, transactions by Chinese buyers fell 26%, from 3,215 to 2,382, while those by U.S. buyers dropped 44%, from 717 to 405.
By price range, low-priced homes worth 600 million won or less accounted for 82% of foreign housing transactions in the Seoul metropolitan area. However, transactions for high-priced homes worth more than 1.2 billion won fell 44%, from 367 to 206 cases, a sharper drop than the 27% decline in transactions for homes priced at 1.2 billion won or less, which fell from 4,250 to 3,098.

going@fnnews.com Choi Ga-young Reporter