Foreign ownership of Korean land rises 1.8 percent in 2022

Apartment complexes seen from the Seoul Sky observatory in Songpa District, southern Seoul, in January [YONHAP]

Foreign ownership of Korean land rose 1.8 percent in 2022 from a year earlier, the Land Ministry said Wednesday.

Foreigners owned 264.01 square kilometers (2,841.8 square feet) — roughly four and a half times more the size of Manhattan Island — at the end of December. It represents 0.26 percent of Korea's total land area, the ministry said in a statement.

The value of land held by foreigners also increased 2.6 percent to 32.88 trillion won ($24.8 billion) over the cited period, it said.

Americans topped all nationalities in terms of ownership, holding 53.4 percent of all land owned by foreigners. Chinese came next with 7.8 percent, followed by Europeans with 7.2 percent and Japanese with 6.3 percent, it said.

Yonhap