As Chinese property ownership in South Korea triples, locals ‘struggle to buy a home’, politician says

Citing data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Tuesday, Hong Suk-joon of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) said 181,391 lots of land nationwide were owned by foreign nationals as of last June.

A lot is a unit of land that is available for building a house or other forms of residence, with varying size depending on regions, population density and other real estate-related conditions.

The total combined size of the real estate increased to 20.81 million square meters from 16.09 million square meters over the cited period.

The value of the properties also increased to 3.69 trillion won (US$2.77 billion) from 2.84 trillion won.

“The data adds to concerns over a housing crisis as it shows Chinese nationals can increasingly go on a property shopping spree while many Koreans are struggling to buy a home,” the lawmaker said.

The lawmaker pointed out that by not allowing Korean nationals to own land there, China goes against the principle of reciprocity in international relations.

“I am afraid that a Chinese buying spree can put upward pressure on housing prices, and that Koreans living in our own land may end up as tenants of housing owned by Chinese nationals,” Hong said.

Separate data from the land ministry showed that Chinese nationals possessed more than half of all housing held by foreign nationals as of June 2023.

Foreign nationals owned a combined 87,223 homes, accounting for 0.46 per cent of all housing in the country.

Data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) showed the outstanding balance of housing mortgage loans for foreigners offered by the four major commercial banks – KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana and Woori – amounted to 2.3 trillion won in the first half of 2023.

The amount was up 3.3 per cent