Jeju land under foreign ownership increased the fastest in the nation in the third quarter of 2013. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Nov. 27, there was an increase of 586,000 square meters of Jeju land under foreign ownership.

This is the largest increase among 17 cities and provinces, beating Gyeongnam (140,000 square meters) and Gangwon (80,000 square meters). The provinces with the biggest decrease include Chungnam (minus 640,000 square meters), Incheon (minus 180,000 square meters), and Jeonnam (minus 30,000 square meters). Domestic land under foreign ownership increased by just 20,000 square meters across the whole nation, with 2.33 million square meters bought and 2.31 million square meters sold.

The total Jeju area under foreign ownership in the second quarter was 10.287 million square meters, increasing to 10.873 million square meters by the third quarter. The Chinese are largely responsible for the growth, reflecting large investments such as Jeju Healthcare Town. In 2012, the Japanese were the second biggest foreign land owners behind the Americans. However, by late June they had been beaten off by the Chinese.

Foreign land ownership in Jeju (square meters)

US: 3.68 million

China: 2.45 million

Japan: 2.18 million

The rest of Asia: 841,894

Jeju accounts for 4.8 percent of land under foreign ownership across the nation which is comparatively high considering Jeju accounts for 1.8 percent of Korea’s land area.