According to data obtained by Park Sang-hyuk, a lawmaker and a member of the National Assembly’s National Transportation Committee, from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport on Oct. 5, there were a total of 1,341 registered foreign property rental operators in South Korea as of the end of last year. These operators collectively owned 3,673 housing units, with more than half of these properties registered in Seoul.
Foreign nationals in South Korea can also register as property rental operators if they are legally recognized as residents. This registration is possible for individuals holding F4 (Overseas Korean) and F5 (Permanent Resident) visas.
Since January of last year, the government has required foreigners who want to register as property rental operators to submit a Foreigner Registration Certificate and provide additional information in their registration applications, including foreigner registration number, nationality, residency status, and duration of stay.
In the past, there was no formal procedure to verify the residency status and other qualifications of foreigners when they registered as rental property operators. This led to many cases where individuals used visas issued for “trade and management” as a loophole to illegally engage in real estate leasing activities.
Foreign property rental operators had been on the rise until 2019, but they have shown a declining trend since 2020. At the end of 2019, there were 2,316 foreign property rental operators, but this number decreased to 1,985 in 2020, 1,637 in 2021, and further decreased to 1,341 last year.
Housing units operated by foreigners are primarily concentrated in the Greater Seoul Metropolitan area. Based on the number of housing units, Seoul accounted for more than half, with 1,941 units, which is 52.8 percent of the 3,673 total units. Gyeonggi followed with 981 units, or 26.7 percent, and Incheon had 253 units, equal to 6.9 percent of the total. All in all, the Greater Seoul region had 3,175 registered housing units, making up 86.4 percent of the total.
Outside of the Greater Seoul Metropolitan Area, the areas with the highest number of foreign-operated housing units, in descending order, were Busan with 120 units, South Chungcheong Province with 102 units, Daejeon with 77 units, North Gyeongsang Province with 55 units, Gwangju with 45 units, and Jeju with 29 units, according to the survey.
Among foreign property rental operators, 891 individuals were leasing only one housing unit. There were 252 operators leasing two to three units, 59 operators leasing four to five units, 67 operators leasing six to ten units, 54 operators leasing 11 to 20 units, and 17 operators leasing 21 to 50 units. Additionally, there was one foreign property rental operator who owned more than 51 housing units.