Lee Kun-hee, chairman of the world's top maker of smartphones Samsung Electronics Co., owns the most expensive houses out of the country's top 30 business leaders, data showed Monday.

The combined declared value of houses held by the 30 business tycoons reached 157.7 billion won ($148.4 million) at end-June, up 9.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by market researcher Chaebul.com.

Lee has three homes in Seoul's affluent Itaewon, Sameong and Seocho areas, with a combined price of 28.1 billion won, up 6.9 percent from last year, the researcher said. The data excludes non-residential property assets.

Lee Myung-hee, the chairwoman of retail giant Shinsegae and a sister of the Samsung head, ranked second with houses priced at 12.8 billion won, up 74.5 percent from a year earlier.

Koo Ja-yeol, who heads LS Group, ranked third with houses priced at 8.7 billion won, followed by Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn with 7 billion won and Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Suck-rai with 6.9 billion won.

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo's houses were valued at 6.8 billion won, Chaebul.com added.

Shin Dong-bin, who heads Lotte Group, saw the value of his home reach 4.7 billion won at end-June, marking the largest jump among business tycoons at 85.1 percent from the 2.6 billion won tallied a year earlier.

Tong Yang Group Chairman Hyun Jae-hyun, meanwhile, saw the value of his home advance 7.4 percent over the cited period to reach 3.6 billion won, but his house was seized by a local court following the group's liquidity crisis. (Yonhap News)