SEOUL - The share of foreign nationals purchasing real estate in South Korea surged to an unprecedented high in 2023, with Chinese buyers leading the trend, according to recent court data. The online real estate registry service operated by the Supreme Court disclosed that a total of 15,600 foreign buyers completed property acquisitions last year, representing 0.9 percent of all land transactions in the country. This milestone underscores a consistent growth in foreign investment in South Korea's real estate sector since the court began tracking such data in 2010.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the percentage of foreign participants in the South Korean real estate market has steadily increased from 0.2 percent in 2010 to 0.75 percent in 2022, highlighting a growing interest among international investors. In particular, Chinese nationals accounted for 72.9 percent of all foreign real estate purchases in 2023, totaling 11,000 transactions. They were followed by Americans, who made up 7,800 of the purchases, and Canadians, who accounted for 1,600.
The data further revealed a significant interest in residential properties among foreign buyers, with over 12,000 foreigners purchasing homes, including apartments, last year. This segment of transactions by non-Koreans constituted 1.21 percent of the total residential market. Notably, the city of Incheon, located 27 kilometers west of Seoul, saw the highest proportion of foreign transactions, with non-Korean buyers accounting for 2.09 percent of all residential sales. South Chungcheong Province and Gyeonggi Province also recorded substantial foreign buyer participation rates of 1.74 percent and 1.68 percent, respectively.
This surge in foreign investment in South Korea's real estate market reflects a broader trend of increasing international interest in the country's property sector, with specific regions attracting more non-Korean buyers than others.