Foreigners snapping up land

The amount of land in Korea owned by foreigners rose in the second quarter, largely on purchases of forestry and arable land, the government said yesterday. It stood at 224.71 square kilometers (87 square miles) as of the end of June, up 0.9 percent from the previous quarter, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. This represents just 0.2 percent of the country’s total area. The number of real estate properties owned by foreigners also rose 2 percent on-quarter to 82,729, worth 33.5 trillion won ($29.9 billion) in the April-June period. Korean expatriates with foreign citizenship owned 57.1 percent of the total land owned by foreigners, up from 49.5 percent in the previous quarter. Foreign-invested Korean companies had a 32 percent stake, with other foreign companies and foreign individuals owning 6.8 percent and 3.9 percent of the total, respectively. Companies or individuals originating from the U.S. formed the largest group of foreign land owners, accounting for 54.2 percent.

Yonhap