JEJU-DO < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) Foreign ownership of South Korean land rose from a year earlier in 2014, partly because of the growing number of Chinese investors buying real estate on the country's southern resort island of Jeju, the government said Thursday.

As of the end of last year, the amount of land owned by foreign entities came to 234.74 million square meters, up 3.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The figure also marked a 1.4 percent rise from 231.42 million square meters at the end of the third quarter last year.

As of end-December, foreign entities owned 16.63 million square meters of land in Jeju, up 51.6 percent from a year earlier.

The area accounted for 0.9 percent of the island's total area. Chinese investors and firms accounted for 50.2 percent of the total owned by foreign entities, according to the ministry.

For the entire nation, 5.6 percent of land owned by foreign entities is owned by Chinese while 52.8 percent is owned by U.S. firms and investors.

Also, individuals of Korean descent owned 53.6 percent of the total land owned by foreign entities.

Joint ventures accounted for 32.5 percent, with foreign firms accounting for 8.2 percent.

bdk@yna.co.kr

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