Stocks overtake real estate as favored investment for 1st time in 20 years

An electronic board shows the benchmark KOSPI closing at 3,183.23 points, up 49.49 points from the previous session, in the main lobby of the Korea Exchange in Seoul's financial district of Yeouido, July 10. On the same day, the combined market capitalization of all three stock exchanges — KOSPI, Kosdaq and KONEX — surpassed 3,000 trillion won ($2.15 trillion won) for the first time ever. Yonhap

Koreans favor stocks most as a means of investment to generate wealth, marking a turnaround from the past 20 years when real estate was the No. 1 pick, according to a survey.

A total of 31 percent of respondents picked stocks as the most advantageous means of investment, compared to 23 percent who preferred land, housing and other forms of property, in a survey taken by Gallup Korea of 1,000 adults aged 18 or older from Tuesday to Thursday.

This is the first time since 2006 that stocks overtook real estate on the list of Koreans’ favored means of investment, at a time when President Lee Jae Myung is pushing to end a longstanding discount of valuation on the domestic stock market.

“The result of the survey possibly reflects optimism toward Lee’s stock market drive and a corresponding bull market,” Jung Eui-jung, head of the Korean Stockholders’ Alliance, said.

He noted that the benchmark KOSPI closed above the 3,000-point threshold for the first time in over three years on June 20 — just a little more than two weeks after Lee began his term.

Also, the combined market capitalization of all three stock exchanges, including secondary bourse Kosdaq and lesser-sized KONEX, surpassed 3,000 trillion won ($2.15 trillion won) for the first time ever on July 10.

To bolster the investor-friendly market, financial regulators are observing Lee’s “one strike, you're out” rule aimed at permanent trading bans against those who manipulate stock prices or engage in other illegal practices.

In addition to the Lee administration’s influence, other positive factors behind the rise of stocks as the top investment choice were advancement of mobile trading platforms, which made both domestic and international stock trading more accessible, as well as a post-pandemic investment boom in the U.S. stock market and the rapid growth of new, AI-driven industries.

Real estate had been the preferred form of investment from 2006 to 2024.

It accounted for more than half the share of all available investment methods in certain years. Real estate was preferred by 54 percent in 2006 and 55 percent in 2020, as housing prices, especially in densely-populated areas, were climbing.

President Lee began reining in housing prices shortly after he took office, with the latest measure being a 600 million won cap on mortgages.

Meanwhile, 20 percent of the 1,000 respondents in Gallup Korea survey preferred savings and deposits as the ideal form of investment.

Some 9 percent chose digital assets, while another 2 percent preferred funds, another 2 percent favored foreign currencies and gold, and 1 percent picked bonds.

The remaining portion of respondents deferred their choice.