Lease contracts in Seoul with a foreign national as landlord reached 6,189 in the first eight months of 2026, more than four times the 2,128 recorded in the whole of 2021, according to an analysis by Korean business daily Edaily of confirmed-date landlord records held by the Supreme Court’s Registry Information Plaza. Over the most recent 12 months, foreigners were landlords on 9,321 Seoul jeonse and monthly-rent contracts, and about 30% of those (2,801) were in the three Gangnam districts: 1,152 in Gangnam-gu, 849 in Songpa-gu and 800 in Seocho-gu. Foreign landlords’ share of the whole rental market rose from 0.27% in 2021 to 0.91% last year, Edaily reported.
The neighbourhoods with the most such contracts were Gaepo-dong, Yeoksam-dong, Seocho-dong, Bangbae-dong and Banpo-dong, which Edaily described as areas of large redevelopment projects or concentrated high-end housing. The paper set the figures against a government housing policy oriented towards owner-occupation and mounting pressure on owners of multiple homes.
In the same report, Edaily cited Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport financing-plan data submitted to Rep. Kim Jong-yang of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee. For contracts signed between 10 February and 30 April 2026, foreign buyers funded 41.4% of their purchase money from financial-institution deposits, against 18.5% for Korean buyers. Kim said that while the government squeezed only Koreans through loans and taxes, high-value foreign purchases had slipped outside the monitoring net and were in effect being left alone. An earlier reading of the same registry, published by Digital Times in June 2025, showed foreign landlords in Gangnam-gu rising from 87 in 2020 to 945 in 2024; Yoon Ji-hae, research lab director at Real Estate R114, told the paper the pattern pointed to capital gains as the motive, as with domestic investors, rather than rental income.
Edaily said that if the current pace holds, full-year 2026 contracts with foreign landlords in Seoul would reach around 9,200. The figures are counts of lease contracts given a confirmed date, not of individual owners, and the Edaily report gave no breakdown by nationality.
References
이데일리 (Edaily) – “외국인한테 월세 꼬박”…외인 집주인 5년래 4배 늘었다 (Foreign landlords in Seoul up more than fourfold in five years) / 디지털타임스 (Digital Times) – “10명 중 3명이나?”…‘강남3구’ 휩쓴 집주인의 놀라운 정체 (Three in ten? The landlords sweeping Gangnam’s three districts)
