Total national building floor area reaches 4.38 billion square meters
South Korea counted 7,438,642 buildings nationwide last year, with apartments accounting for the largest share — 70 percent — of total floor area in the Greater Seoul metropolitan area.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport released the figures Wednesday. As of the end of last year, the total number of buildings nationwide stood at 7,438,642, up 17,039, or 0.2 percent, from the previous year. Total floor area reached 4.38 billion square meters, an increase of 60.04 million square meters, or 1.4 percent, year on year.
The Greater Seoul area added 2,272 buildings to reach 2,077,588, while regional areas outside the capital added 14,767 to reach 5,361,054.
By use type, residential buildings accounted for nearly half of all floor area at 46.1 percent, or 2.02 billion square meters, while commercial buildings made up 964.6 million square meters, or 22 percent. Industrial and residential uses posted the highest year-on-year growth rates, at 1.7 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
Over the past decade, the average annual growth rate in building count was 0.6 percent, while total floor area grew at an average annual rate of 2.3 percent, pointing to a trend toward larger buildings.
Among residential subtypes, apartments were by far the largest category at 1.32 billion square meters, or 65.3 percent of residential floor area, followed by detached houses at 332.76 million square meters (16.5 percent), multi-household homes at 171.87 million square meters (8.5 percent), multi-family homes at 133.65 million square meters (6.6 percent), and row houses at 45.57 million square meters (2.3 percent).
Over the past five years, the average annual change in building count was minus 0.1 percent, while floor area grew 1.7 percent annually. The ministry attributed the divergence to a decline in smaller detached and multi-household homes, offset by strong growth in the count and floor area of larger apartment buildings.
In the Greater Seoul area, apartments held the largest share of residential floor area at 654.1 million square meters, or 69.3 percent, followed by multi-family homes at 101.84 million square meters (10.8 percent), detached houses at 82.27 million square meters (8.7 percent), multi-household homes at 74.58 million square meters (7.9 percent), and row houses at 24.51 million square meters (2.6 percent).
In regional areas, apartments also led at 662.59 million square meters, or 61.8 percent, followed by detached houses at 250.48 million square meters (23.4 percent), multi-household homes at 97.30 million square meters (9.1 percent), multi-family homes at 31.81 million square meters (3.0 percent), and row houses at 21.06 million square meters (2.0 percent).
hss@heraldcorp.com
