Average House Price Gap Between Top and Bottom 10% of Homeowners is 49.3 Times

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] Last year, the average housing price of the top 10% of households owning homes was 1.484 billion KRW, an increase of 175 million KRW compared to the previous year. The average house price gap between these households and the bottom 10% households reached 49.3 times.

The number of people who became homeowners from non-homeowners within one year was 1,036,000, which is interpreted as having purchased homes when housing prices were at their peak last year. The number of multi-homeowners was 2,273,000, marking the first decrease since related statistics began being compiled in 2012.

On the 15th, Statistics Korea announced the '2021 Housing Ownership Statistics' containing these details. The Housing Ownership Statistics is an annual statistic that utilizes administrative data related to housing such as building registers, publicly announced housing prices, property taxes, and population, household, and housing data from the Population and Housing Census. The reference point for this statistic is November 1, 2021.

First, looking at the status by decile based on housing asset value, the average number of owned houses and housing area increased as the decile rose.

The average housing asset value of households owning homes was 376 million KRW, the average number of owned houses was 1.35, the average area was 86.6㎡, the average age of the household head was 56.3 years, and the average household size was 2.63 persons.

The average housing asset value of the 10th decile (top 10%) was 1.484 billion KRW, the average number of owned houses was 2.35, and the average area was 111㎡. In contrast, the average housing asset value of the 1st decile (bottom 10%) was 30 million KRW, the average number of owned houses was 0.98, and the average area was 63㎡. This means the average house price gap between the top 10% and bottom 10% households widened to about 50 times.

＜Status by Decile Based on Housing Asset Value＞ Data: Statistics Korea

As of last year, the total number of houses was 18.812 million, an increase of 286,000 compared to the same period the previous year. Among these, houses owned by individuals accounted for 16.242 million, or 86.3%. The number of individuals owning houses was 15.089 million.

The average number of houses owned per homeowner was 1.08, slightly down from 1.09 the previous year. By age group, those in their 50s accounted for the largest share at 25.1%, followed by those in their 40s (22.1%), 60s (21.6%), 70s (11.4%), and 30s (10.9%).

Among homeowners, 12.816 million people (84.9%) owned only one house. Those owning two or more houses numbered 2.273 million, accounting for 15.1%.

The number of multi-homeowners was 2.273 million, down by 47,000 from the previous year. This is the first decrease in the number of multi-homeowners in nine years since Statistics Korea began compiling related statistics in 2012. The proportion of multi-homeowners decreased for two consecutive years from 15.8% to 15.1%.

In 2020, 1.036 million people transitioned from non-homeowners to homeowners in 2021. Considering that housing prices peaked at the end of last year and shifted to a downward trend this year, it is likely that this group purchased homes near the peak. Those who acquired homes through loans may have been directly impacted by interest rate hikes. Among them, 1 million acquired one house, and 36,000 acquired two or more houses. Conversely, 552,000 people became non-homeowners in 2021. Among those who owned two or more houses, 27,000 became non-homeowners.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.