The new owner of a high-end apartment unit in Seoul’s Banpo district, which was sold for a record 7.4 billion won ($5.09 million) late last year, has been identified as a 41-year-old Uzbek national, data showed Monday.
A real estate register, seen by Herald Business, a sister paper of The Korea Herald, revealed that the owner acquired the 244-square-meter unit on the 26th floor of Banpo Xi, a landmark apartment complex in Seocho-gu's Banpo-dong, in November last year.
That is 300 million won more than the 7.1 billion won an identical unit on the 21st floor fetched a month earlier.
The owner, whose registered address is in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, completed the transfer of ownership on Feb. 28. The apartment unit was purchased without any financing or loan secured against it, suggesting the buyer made a full cash payment.
Google Maps shows that the Uzbek national's Tashkent address is listed as a clinic specializing in traditional Korean medicine.
Consisting of 3,410 units, Banpo Xi is home to many Korean celebrities, including comedian couple Park Jun-hyung and Kim Ji-hye and actress Yeom Jeong-ah.
“Usually, many foreign executives from big companies rent units in Banpo Xi. Foreign ownership of property here is a rare occurrence,” according to a realtor in Banpo-dong.
The Uzbek national's purchase comes as South Korea sees a rise in foreign ownership of homes.
According to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the number of homes owned by foreign nationals totaled 95,058, as of June last year. The figure has shown continuous growth, rising from 82,512 at the end of 2022 to 87,223 in the first half of 2023 and reaching 91,453 by the year’s end.
Chinese owners hold the largest share with 52,798 apartment units, which accounted for 55.5 percent of the total, followed by those from the United States with 21,360 (22.5 percent), Canada with 6,225 (6.5 percent), Taiwan with 3,307 (3.5 percent), and Australia with 1,894 (2 percent).
cjh@heraldcorp.com
