Foreign-owned land in Korea inches up in October

The amount of land in Korea owned by foreigners edged up during the third quarter of this year from the previous quarter, government data showed Wednesday.

The amount of foreign-owned land here came to 225.56 million square meters as of end-September, up 0.4 percent or 850,000 square meters from three months earlier, according to the data by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

The estimated value of land owned by foreigners totaled 33.76 trillion won ($31.09 billion), up 0.76 percent or 253.8 billion won from a quarter earlier, the report showed. Foreign-owned land accounted for about 0.2 percent of the total.

Of the foreign-owned land, Korean expatriates with foreign citizenship held 57.1 percent, while foreign-invested South Korean companies had 31.8 percent. Genuine foreign companies owned 6.8 percent, the report showed.

By nationality, U.S. citizens and companies held 53.9 percent of the foreign-owned land, followed by those from Europe with 10.5 percent and Japan with 8.5 percent, according to the report. (Yonhap)