Hwan-guem Choi, Gounee Yang

Global Economic News

FOREIGN investors’ housing transactions in South Korea have significantly decreased this year.

As the country’s real estate market has shrunk since the second half of last year, foreign investors, who had aggressively purchased South Korean properties, have also taken a step back. The industry predicts that their property transactions will be further decreased when the President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s government imposes new restrictions on foreigners’ real estate purchases.

According to the South Korea Real Estate Board, foreigners’ building transactions was 1,138 in January this year, down 14.3% from the previous month (1,328). Building transactions include houses, apartments, and officetels for residential purposes.

The January transaction volume is the second lowest over the past five years, hitting the lowest since February 2019 (1,057). The number of foreigners’ building transactions continued to fluctuate after hitting 2,273 in July 2020, the highest since statistics were compiled. It has been on the decline since last year.

Analysts say that the decline in foreigners’ housing transactions is due to the recession in the South Korean real estate market.