Real estate accounts for more than three-fourths of South Korean property for sale assets, showing their strong preference for property, the statistics office said Wednesday.

According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), 76.8 percent of each household's assets in 2006 was property, much higher than the averages in the United States with 36 percent, Canada with 50 percent and Japan with 61.7 percent.

Financial assets made up 20.4 percent of the total, while other types of assets such as cars, golf club memberships and resort condominium tickets accounted for another 2.7 percent. On average, household assets totaled 281.1 million won (US$297,127).

The high percentage showed a strong preference by South Korean's for property ownership over other types of assets such as bank deposits or stock investment, the NSO said.

The findings are based on a survey of 9,300 households taken in May last year. It is the first time for the NSO to release household assets data.

In terms of net assets, the top 10 percent of the surveyed households owned 51.9 percent of the nation's total household net assets, compared with 45 percent in Finland and 42 percent in Italy. The United States and Germany had a higher top 10-percent asset concentration with 69.5 percent and 54 percent, respectively.

On average, each household had 39.48 million won in liabilities last year, or 14 percent of total assets, the office said.