3,084 foreigners cashing in on residential leases

By Jung Da-min, Park Si-soo

Nearly 3,100 foreigners are making money in Korea by leasing their houses or other residential facilities here, data showed on Sunday. The figure was nearly a three-fold increase from 1,061 in 2014, indicating an increasing number of foreigners see the potential of Korea's residential lease market.

As of July, 3,084 foreigners were registered as landlords of rentable houses, independent lawmaker Lee Yong-ho said, based on data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. This was up from 2,437 last year, 1,566 in 2015 and 1,061 in 2014. The registry added 647 between January and July.

"The number of foreign landlords keeps increasing,” Lee said. He noted that by purchasing domestic houses or land, foreigners as well as locals, could evade taxes or transfer wealth to children without paying due taxes.

The lawmaker called on the ministry to tighten the monitoring of foreign landlords in case some deals were suspicious.