Seoul: The number of homeowners in South Korea increased by 2 percent on-year in 2023, with female ownership showing a steady rise, government data showed Monday. The total number of people with home ownership registrations reached 15.62 million last year, up by 309,000 compared with the previous year.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the data by Statistics Korea indicated that 7.2 million were female homeowners, making up 46.2 percent of the total. This ratio has been gradually increasing over the past few years, from 45.2 percent in 2020 to 45.6 percent in 2021, and 45.9 percent in 2022. Among all homeowners, 2.34 million people, or 15 percent, owned two or more properties.

The proportion of multiple home owners has seen a decline since its peak in 2019 at 15.9 percent, dropping to 15.1 percent in 2021 and 14.9 percent in 2022. Regionally, Jeju recorded the highest percentage of multiple home owners at 20.3 percent, followed by South Chungcheong Province at 17.7 percent. In contrast, the percentage was re
latively low in Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, where it stood at 14 percent.

The data further revealed that 13.3 million people owned only one property, representing 85 percent of all homeowners. In terms of age distribution, homeowners in their 50s accounted for the largest share at 25.2 percent, followed by those in their 60s with 22.8 percent, 40s with 21.2 percent, and 70s with 12 percent.

The number of first-time homebuyers reached 719,000 in 2023, while 306,000 people sold their homes and no longer owned any property during the same period. The average home price for the country was 321 million won (US$230,000) last year, up from 315 million won a year earlier.

Notably, the top 10 percent of households in terms of property value owned homes priced at an average of 1.26 billion won, which is 40.5 times higher than the average home value of the bottom 10 percent at 31 million won. Additionally, the top 10 percent of households owned an average of 2.37 properties, approximately 2.4 times m
ore than the bottom 10 percent who owned an average of 0.98 properties. The figures indicate that households with more expensive properties tend to own more homes overall.