Over 85,000 foreign nationals own a house in South Korea, with Chinese nationals accounting for more than half of real estate properties held by foreigners in the country, government data showed.

A total of 85,358 foreign nationals owned a house in South Korea as of the end of June, up 4.6 percent from the corresponding figure from six months earlier, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Nearly 93.5 percent of the foreign nationals had ownership of a single house here, while 5.2 percent owned two houses.

Foreign nationals owned a combined 87,223 houses, which account for 0.46 percent of all the houses in the country.

Of the 87,223 houses, Chinese nationals owned 47,327, or 54.3 percent; while Americans owned 20,469, or 23.5 percent; Canadians 5,959, or 6.8 percent; and Taiwanese 3,286, or 3.8 percent. (Yonhap)