Buying Property in Korea as a Foreigner (2026): The Seoul/Gyeonggi Land-Permit Zone to August 2027, Acquisition Tax, Mortgages, Reporting — Cost Calculator

Korea has no nationality restriction on owning property: a foreigner can buy an apartment, a house or land outright, in their own name, resident or not. What changed in August 2025 is where. In response to a surge of foreign — largely Chinese — purchases in the capital, the government designated all of Seoul, 23 Gyeonggi cities and counties and the Incheon districts as a foreigner land-transaction permit zone, and on August 20, 2026 extended it to August 25, 2027. Inside the zone a foreigner needs a permit that comes with a two-year live-in requirement; outside it, the rules are the same as for Koreans plus a report. This part covers the permit, the taxes, the loan, and the steps, with a cost calculator.

The permit zone (2025–2027)

Under the Act on Report on Real Estate Transactions, the Ministry of Land can designate zones where foreign individuals and foreign-controlled companies need a permit to buy. On August 26, 2025 it did so for the first time for the housing market: All 25 Seoul districts, 23 Gyeonggi cities/counties and the Incheon districts designated in 2025. The designation was for a year and was extended on August 20, 2026 to August 25, 2027.

Inside the zone, before signing a purchase contract for a home (or the land under it), a foreign buyer applies to the district office with a funding plan (자금조달계획서 — bank statements, loan approval, remittance records; unexplained foreign cash is the main reason for refusal), proof of status (ARC, or for a non-resident the passport and registration number), and a declaration to move in within 4 months and live there 2 years. Purchases to rent out or hold empty are refused; buying without a permit is a criminal offence and the contract is void. Processing takes about 15 days. Effect so far: foreign purchases in Seoul fell 37% in the ten months after designation.

Outside the zone — Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, most of Gyeonggi's outer counties, Jeju's ordinary housing — a foreigner simply reports the purchase within 60 days of contract, as every buyer does, plus a separate foreigner acquisition report if the land is in a military, cultural-heritage or ecological protection area.

Foreigners owned 108,231 Korean homes at the end of 2025, 0.55% of the stock, about 56% of them Chinese nationals and 21% American, concentrated in Gyeonggi (Bucheon, Ansan, Siheung, Pyeongtaek) and Seoul.

Taxes: the same as a Korean, counted by your household

Acquisition tax on a home is 1% up to ₩600,000,000, sliding to 3% at ₩900,000,000 and above, plus a 10% local education surcharge and, for homes over 85㎡, 0.2% rural special tax — about 1.1–3.5% in total. Surcharges of 8% / 12% hit a second/third home in a regulated area (Seoul and 15 Gyeonggi districts) and a third/fourth elsewhere. "Homes" are counted per household as recorded on your alien registration, and homes abroad are not counted under current practice. A first-time buyer of a home priced ₩1.2bn or less gets up to ₩2M off. Payment is due within 60 days of the purchase, at the district office or online (WeTax), before registration. The 2026 local-tax reform proposals to ease acquisition tax had not been enacted as of September 2026.

Property tax (July and September) and, for holdings above ₩900M of assessed value (₩1.2bn for a single-home household), the comprehensive real estate tax in December, apply to foreigners identically; our sister site's Korean-language calculators work for your numbers. Capital gains tax on sale follows the Korean schedule — the 1-home exemption up to ₩1.2bn after two years of holding (and residence, in regulated areas) is available to a foreign resident; a non-resident seller gets no 1-home exemption and the buyer withholds tax at source.

Rental income from a Korean property is Korean-source income for residents and non-residents alike: a non-resident landlord files a Korean return each May through a tax agent; residents pay ordinary progressive tax (our rental-income guide has the 2026 rules).

The mortgage

A foreign resident with an ARC, Korean employment income and a Korean credit record can borrow from Korean banks on the same terms as a Korean: LTV 40% in the regulated areas (70% for first-time buyers), capped by price band at ₩600M (homes up to ₩1.5bn), ₩400M (to ₩2.5bn) and ₩200M above; 70% elsewhere; DSR 40% with a 3%p stress rate on capital-region loans, so the bank tests your repayments at a rate about 3 points above the offered 4.2–7.3%. Terms are up to 30 years in the capital region. The policy loans (Didimdol, Bogeumjari) require Korean nationality or a Korean spouse in most cases. Non-residents cannot in practice obtain a Korean home loan; foreign-bank branches in Seoul lend to their own expatriate clients occasionally.

The year-end settlement receipt (Money Basics Part 3) is the income document every bank asks for; a flat-rate elector's receipt shows gross, which banks accept.

Steps, in order

1. Confirm the zone and, inside it, your eligibility for a permit (residence for two years).
2. Broker (공인중개사) — commission up to 0.4% (₩900M–1.2bn: 0.5%; 1.2–1.5bn: 0.6%; above: 0.7%), negotiable, paid at closing.
3. Register-of-title check (등기부등본, ₩700 online) for liens; a foreign buyer's judicial scrivener (법무사) handles registration, ₩300,000–700,000.
4. Contract with 10% deposit; permit (in zone) before or as a condition of contract.
5. Funding: remittance from abroad through a Korean bank with a purpose declaration (부동산 취득 신고 to the bank, which files with the Bank of Korea) — keep every receipt for the eventual sale-proceeds remittance.
6. Report within 60 days; pay acquisition tax; register title (등기).
7. Move in within 4 months if under a permit; keep proof of residence.

Jeju's investment-immigration scheme (F-2 for a ₩1,000,000,000 resort-property purchase, running to December 31, 2026) is the one route where property leads to a visa; it is a different animal and outside this course.

Most foreigners in Korea do not buy — they rent, and the Korean rental system has a deposit structure found nowhere else. The next part explains jeonse.