Number of wealthy S.Koreans grows to nearly 40,000 last year: Report

Seoul, Nov 14 The number of "rich people" with financial assets worth 1 billion won ($847,000) or more increased nearly 11 per cent in South Korea last year from a year earlier largely on stock gains, a report revealed on Sunday.

The number jumped 10.9 per cent to 39,300 as of last year, around 0.76 per cent of the country's total population of 52 million, and the proportion of property in their portfolio has increased, apparently driven by soaring apartment prices, according to the Korea Wealth Report 2021 released by the KB Financial Group Research Institute.

The total financial assets owned by the rich jumped 21.6 per cent on-year to 2,618 trillion won due to a surge in stock gains, Yonhap News Agency quoted the report as saying.

Among them, 59 per cent of the rich's wealth portfolio was made up of property assets, while 36.6 per cent were invested in financial assets.

The rich allocated a larger percentage of their total assets in property on the booming local housing market, up from 56.6 per cent in 2020.

Meanwhile, South Koreans who owned less than 1 billion won allocated 78.2 per cent in property assets and only 17.1 per cent in financial assets.

In a survey conducted on 400 wealthy South Koreans by KB, the number of active and aggressive investors who were willing to take a higher risk for high returns increased 5.2 per cent on-year, indicating that the tendency for risky investment among the rich grew over a year.

Over 70.4 per cent of the wealthy Koreans were based in the capital and the greater Seoul area, with 45.5 per cent, or 179,000 individuals, living in Seoul.

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