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| 2021.3.28/News1 © News1 Reporter Min Kyung-seok |
Since the inauguration of President Moon Jae-in, the land area owned by pure foreigners as of the first half of last year has increased by 70%. Of these, the number of Chinese-owned land increased by 120% and the published price increased by 30%, ranking first in both the land owned and the increase in land prices.
According to the’Status of Foreigners’ Land Ownership’ received from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport by Rep. Kim Sang-hoon (Daegu Seo-gu, National Land Transport Commission) on the 20th, the land area owned by pure foreigners from 10,1998 km2 in 2016 to 2412 km2 in the first half of 2020 It increased by 8414 km2. This is the result of a 70% increase compared to 2016.
In particular, the number of Chinese-owned parcels increased by about 30,000 (120%) from 24,035 in 2016 to 54,112 in the first half of 2020.
The publicly announced land price also showed the highest increase in Chinese-owned land. Compared to 2016, the publicly announced land price of all Chinese-owned land in the first half of 2020 rose 30% from 2.8 trillion won to 2.7 trillion won. The increase rate is more pronounced than the US 4% (approximately 560 billion won) increase and Japan 4.5% (120 billion won) decrease.
The regions that foreigners have the most are the Seoul and Gyeonggi-do metropolitan areas. In particular, in Gyeonggi-do, where the third new city is located, 27,186 foreign-owned parcels in 2016 reached 43,034 in 2016, an increase of about 58%. Since 2018, it has surpassed Seoul and has the most foreigners’ parcels.
In the case of Chinese people with the highest growth rate of land owned during the same period, the number of parcels owned only in Gyeonggi-do increased from 6179 to 17,380. This is an increase of over 180%.
Other countries, such as New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, have established regulatory mechanisms for foreigners’ real estate acquisition. However, in Korea, it is possible to acquire the land subject to permits according to the same procedure as Koreans, except for reporting under the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act.
In addition, Chinese people account for 73% (11,267 cases) of lands owned by foreigners in Jeju Island (15,341 cases).
For example, there are also criticisms that it is not a violation of the principle of reciprocity in that Koreans can only have limited land use rights and property ownership rights in China.
Rep. Kim Sang-hoon pointed out that “the procedure for purchasing land is almost the same, but various regulations are harsh for Koreans.”