Foreigners Snap Up Prime Real Estate in Seoul Amid Domestic Mortgage Restrictions

The number of foreign property owners in Seoul's real estate market has grown at a faster pace than that of domestic buyers.

According to an analysis of real estate registration status data from the Supreme Court registry by proptech app Zippum, the number of foreign-owned properties in Seoul stood at 32,870 as of last month.

This represents a 3.3% increase compared to 31,812 recorded during the same period last year.

In contrast, the number of domestic owners rose by just 1.0% over the same period, increasing from 3,899,938 to 3,938,447. This indicates that the growth rate of foreign ownership is more than three times higher than that of locals.

Looking at this year alone, the number of foreign property owners in Seoul rose by about 470 over a six-month period, climbing from 32,397 in January to 32,870 last month.

By district, Gangnam-gu had the highest number of foreign owners at 3,440.

Guro-gu followed with 2,710, followed by Seocho-gu with 2,353, as well as Yeongdeungpo-gu and Songpa-gu.

The data also revealed a trend of foreign buyers focusing heavily on prime locations in Seoul during the first half of the year.

As of March, 30.8% of foreigners who purchased real estate in Seoul acquired so-called "one prime property" in the "Gangnam 3-gu" districts (Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa) and Yongsan-gu.

While government lending restrictions and real estate measures have sharply reduced mortgage limits for domestic buyers in the capital area and regulated zones, foreigners can secure funds through banks in their home countries without such limitations to buy domestic housing. This has fueled ongoing controversy over "reverse discrimination" against local citizens.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Lee Eui-seon | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.