Over 50.5% of Residential Buildings Are Over 30 Years Old

Total National Building Floor Area Increased by 75.097 Million ㎡ Last Year
Equivalent to 10,000 Soccer Fields

It has been revealed that 41% of buildings in South Korea are over 30 years old. In Seoul, 54.3% of buildings, and 50.5% of residential buildings nationwide were found to be aging buildings.

According to the "2022 National Building Status" announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 2nd, as of the end of last year, buildings constructed before 1993 and over 30 years old totaled 3,017,299 buildings, accounting for 41.0% of the total (7,354,340 buildings). In terms of total floor area, aging buildings occupied 884.1 million square meters, corresponding to 21.4% of the total.

By region, the metropolitan area recorded 33.9% aging buildings, while provinces recorded 43.8%. In particular, Seoul showed that more than half, 54.3%, were aging buildings, an increase of 3.9 percentage points from the previous year (50.4%).

By usage, aging buildings nationwide were mostly residential at 50.5%, followed by commercial at 31.0%, educational and social at 22.9%, and industrial at 17.2%. Among residential buildings, 41.1% in the metropolitan area and 53.9% in provinces were aging buildings. Seoul recorded 54.3%.

◇Total floor area increased last year... equivalent to the size of 10,000 soccer fields= Nationwide, the number of buildings was 7,354,340, and the total floor area was 4.13134 billion square meters. Compared to the previous year, the number of buildings increased by 40,076 (0.5%), and the floor area increased by 75.097 million square meters (1.9%).

The increase in floor area last year is equivalent to about 10,000 soccer fields (7,140㎡ each) or about 2,852 baseball fields (26,331㎡ each). The metropolitan area increased by 16,089 buildings (41.686 million㎡) to 2,051,614 buildings (4.1686 billion㎡), while provinces increased by 23,987 buildings (33.41 million㎡) to 5,302,726 buildings (2.25358 billion㎡) during the same period.

By usage, residential buildings (1.913 billion㎡) and commercial buildings (915.04 million㎡) accounted for high proportions of 46.3% and 22.1%, respectively. The growth rates compared to the previous year were highest for industrial buildings at 2.9% and commercial buildings at 2.3%.

For residential buildings, the total floor area increased by 30.084 million㎡ compared to the previous year, but the number of buildings decreased by about 5,000. For other uses except residential, the number of buildings increased in the order of commercial, others, industrial, and educational/social during the same period.

The per capita floor area of buildings nationwide was 80.32㎡, an increase of 1.77㎡ from the previous year. The metropolitan area increased by 1.70㎡ to 72.26㎡, and provinces increased by 1.87㎡ to 88.54㎡. Seoul had the lowest per capita building floor area among all cities and provinces at 62.4㎡.

When narrowed down to residential buildings, the per capita floor area nationwide was 37.19㎡. Seoul was the lowest at 32.51㎡, followed by Incheon at 34.71㎡, Gyeonggi at 36.01㎡, and Jeju at 36.68㎡.

◇Among residential buildings, apartments account for 63.7%... permits increased but completions and starts decreased= Looking at detailed usage, apartments accounted for the largest floor area among residential buildings at 1.21849 billion㎡ (63.7%). This was followed by detached houses at 332.08 million㎡ (17.4%), multi-family houses at 171.64 million㎡ (9.0%), row houses at 132.23 million㎡ (6.9%), and townhouses at 44.017 million㎡ (2.3%).

Over the past five years, the number of residential buildings and the growth rate of total floor area were -0.3% and 1.9%, respectively. This is interpreted as a decrease in the number and size of smaller detached houses (-0.5%, -0.2%) and a higher growth rate in larger apartments (2.3%, 2.8%).

By region, in the metropolitan area, apartments accounted for the largest floor area at 610.62 million㎡ (67.9%), followed by row houses at 105.4 million㎡ (11.2%), detached houses at 82.55 million㎡ (9.2%), multi-family houses at 75.21 million㎡ (8.4%), and townhouses at 23.78 million㎡ (2.6%).

In provinces, apartments recorded 607.87 million㎡ (59.9%), detached houses 249.53 million㎡ (24.6%), multi-family houses 96.43 million㎡ (9.5%), row houses 31.68 million㎡ (3.1%), and townhouses 20.23 million㎡ (2.0%).

Compared to the previous year, the nationwide permitted building floor area increased by 3.6%, but starts and completions decreased by 18.7% and 11.2%, respectively. The number of permitted buildings decreased by 15.1% to 196,477 buildings during the same period. The metropolitan area decreased by 15.7%, and provinces by 14.8%.

The floor area of building starts decreased by 18.7% from the previous year to 110.24 million㎡, and the number of buildings decreased by 18.5% to 151,340 buildings. By region, the metropolitan area decreased by 14.78 million㎡ to 52.15 million㎡, and provinces decreased by 10.63 million㎡ to 58.09 million㎡.

The floor area of building completions decreased by 11.2% from the previous year to 112.87 million㎡. The metropolitan area decreased by 57.2 million㎡, and provinces decreased by 55.7 million㎡, showing a decrease rate of about 10%.

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