Wealthy people buy stocks and gold

An apartment building in Seocho-gu, Seoul, is seen in Namsan on Jan. 21, after the Central Real Estate Price Disclosure Committee deliberated and decided on a plan to re-establish the realization of real estate prices. By Cho Tae-hyung phototom@kyunghyang.com

The rich in South Korea said stocks and gold are the most promising medium- to long-term investments. The outlook for real estate investment has become negative from a year earlier.

Analysts said it is attributable to the increased uncertainty in the domestic and international economic situations due to wars and interest rate hikes.

The findings came from a report released by KB Financial Management Research Institute on December 17 which surveyed 400 wealthy people in South Korea with financial and real estate assets of more than 1 billion won each.
Respondents cited stocks (44 percent), houses (44.3 percent for residential use, 32.3 percent for non-residential use), and gold and jewelry (32 percent) as the best investments that are expected to yield high returns over the next three years.

Compared to a year earlier, stocks and gold and jewelry showed an increase of 13 percentage points and 5.2 percentage points, respectively.
The rich also expected that stocks (47.8 percent) would generate the highest profits within a year, followed by residential real estate (46.5 percent), gold and jewelry (31.8 percent), and non-residential real estate (31 percent).
As of the end of last year, the number of wealthy people with financial assets of more than 1 billion won was estimated to be 456,000, or 0.89 percent, of the total population.

Compared to the end of 2021 (424,000), the number increased by 7.5 percent (32,000) and the proportion by 0.07 percentage points. However, their total financial assets decreased to 274.7 trillion won this year, down 4.7 percent from a year earlier (288.3 trillion won), showing the first reverse growth in four years.
Analysts attributed the reverse growth to a surge in stock prices due to increased liquidity after the coronavirus pandemic, followed by a decline in interest rate hikes and a sharp drop in bond values.
The total real estate assets of the rich in South Korea reached 254.3 trillion won this year, up 7.7 percent from last year (236.1 trillion won), but the growth rate was lower than in 2021 and 2022 when it exceeded the 10 percent mark.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.