By Choi Kyong-ae
Staff Reporter


The total value of real estate in South Korea doubled to surpass 2,000 trillion won ($2 trillion) over the past 14 years, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation said Wednesday.

The stiff rise in land value reflects the red-hot real estate market here. According to Internet news site Presian, the total value of Korean real estate is estimated at six times higher than Canada, seven times higher than France and accounts for half that of the United States.

The ministry said that the nation’s taxable land, or about 90.1 billion square meters, was estimated at 2,176 trillion won as of April. The value was estimated on government-set prices for taxation purposes so the real value for actual transactions would be much higher.

Seoul, which accounted for only 0.53 percent in terms of real estate size, had the highest land value by the region, amounting to 661 trillion won. Coming in second was Pusan with the total estimated value at 112.5 trillion won, followed by Kyonggi Province with 100.5 trillion won.

In terms of average price for one square meter of land, Seoul topped the list with 1.35 million won ($1,300) and the mountainous Kangwon Province came at the bottom of the list with 3,394 won.

Land value exceeded 1,000 trillion won in 1991.

Meanwhile, the ministry said that foreigners held real estate estimated at 24.1 trillion won, or slightly over 1 percent of the total value, the ministry said.

In the second quarter, foreigners bought 6 million square meters of land worth 596 billion won and sold 0.62 million square meters worth 135 billion won. This represented a 3.4 percent increase in land size and a 1.9 percent rise in dollar amount in the quarter-to-quarter comparison.

By ownership, foreigners of Korean origin topped the list followed by joint ventures and foreign corporations, in that order.

By nationality, the U.S. accounted for about 60 percent. Europe and Japan came second and third, respectively.

The size of land owned by foreigners made an annual average jump of 30 percent until 2001 following the liberalization of land trade by foreigners in June 1998.

However, it dropped to 4 percent in 2003 but climbed to 6.2 percent last year.

Ministry officials expect a rise in the purchase of land by foreigners in the years to come. ``We believe that foreigners, especially foreigners of Korean origin, will buy more land as investments considering the high returns from real estate and the establishment of free trade zones.’’