The South Korean real estate market ranked 30th in terms of transparency, a survey showed Wednesday.

According to Jones Lang LaSalle Korea, the country climbed one notch in its Global Real Estate Transparency Index, a benchmark of real estate market transparency that covers 99 countries. The index studies 210 indicators, including the level of sustainable management, resilience to economic crisis and technological advances of respective countries. 

Officials of the global real estate services firm attributed the country’s improvement mainly to the government-measures to nurture real estate investment trusts firms, while placing emphasis on public access to realty market data related to corporate governance. 

A REIT is a company that finances income-generating properties, ranging from apartment buildings to shopping centers, by pooling the capital of numerous investors.

The government is slated to cut taxes imposed on domestic REITs and give them a grace period for property tax payments during the second half of this year, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Korea, however, ranked third in the assessment of PropTech capabilities, after France and the Netherlands. PropTech refers to businesses using information technology to improve the way people buy, rent, or sell residential and commercial property.

The country was recognized for its efforts to apply new technologies to the local real estate services. For instance, the Land Ministry and related government agencies have recently vowed to come up with a comprehensive framework to foster the development of PropTech services by the end of this year.

By Choi Jae-hee (cjh@heraldcorp.com)