The value of land owned by foreign nationals here came to 30.8 trillion won ($25.1 billion) last year, and accounted for 0.2 percent of the nation’s total area, government data showed Thursday.

Foreign land ownership in South Korea as of end-2019 rose 3 percent from a year earlier in terms of area, with the aggregated total at 248.7 square kilometers, according to data released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The corresponding area is equivalent to 0.2 percent of the nation’s gross area and 40 percent of the size of Seoul City.

“Foreign ownership sharply increased from 2014 to 2015, but the growth rate started slowing down in 2016 and remained steady until recently,” the ministry said in a statement.

Of all the foreign land owners, US nationals outpaced other nationalities, accounting for 52.2 percent, or 129.8 million square meters of land. Chinese made up 7.8 percent of foreign owned land while Japanese and Europeans held 7.5 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.

In terms of land value, however, Europeans came second after US citizens with Chinese and Japanese owners took third and fourth respectively.

By region, Gyeonggi Province accounted for 17.7 percent, or 43.9 square kilometers, of all foreign owned land, followed by South Jeolla Province with 15.5 percent and North Gyeongsang Province with 14.7 percent. Jeju Island, a popular tourist destination, saw foreign land ownership increased 0.7 percent on-year to 21.8 square kilometers.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)