Trending: Hallyu and the Korean Wave
So Hallyu is big news for the real estate sector. As this special Trending brief shows, Korean retailers and restaurant operators, conscious of the huge potential still ahead, are gearing up, financing, and staking their claims in the world of real estate.
Here’s your roundup of the latest from the sensational Korean wave, and what it means for the property world.
PEOPLE
Riding the crest of the Korean wave
Later this month the Korean Cultural Centre will host a two-part networking event to discuss the phenomenal rise of interest in Korea, kicking off with a talk titled ‘Hallyu - What’s Next’. And you can soak up even more of the Hallyu cultural wave by attending the Festival of Korean dance, at The Place, WC1H, or the Arts of Korea festival at the V&A until the end of June.
Image: Festival of Korean Dance
K-London is hot content
K-Culture influencers abound the social platforms, offering their millions of followers tips on the best places in London to get Korean beauty products, the hottest new food joints, even, in the case of @koreanbilly, guides on some of the UK’s more difficult accents (one being Scouse). There’s Hallyu Doing with its focus on K-Pop and trips to Korea, and the self-styled ‘Queen of New Malden’ and founder of the K-Supper Club, Becky Lee Smith, has her eyes, and socials, on everything Hallyu in London.
K-Beauty driving Superdrug sales
If confirmation were needed that K-Beauty products are big business, you only need to look at the success of a collab between high street chain Superdrug and a number of select Korean cosmetics and beauty brands. If you made it to live event Superdrug Presents 2026 at the beginning of May, you’ll have noticed the large presence of K-Beauty brands, not least PURESEOUL (see below) which took the largest stall at the venue.
Korean imports to the UK in Q1 2026 were +161% on the same period the year before, compared with an overall growth in Europe of 58%
The UK’s rapidly increasing market for K-beauty products
PLACES
London’s ‘Little Korea’
South Malden was first unofficially, and is now very much recognised, as the Korea Town of London, or ‘Little Korea’. The presence of numerous Korean restaurants and cafes makes Malden a magnet for lovers of Korean culture, especially the foodies, confirmed by the fact that another supermarket chain in rapid expansion mode, Seoul Plaza, has its unofficial flagship there. Feast your eyes on this Secret London guide.
Skin Cupid founder: “we want to be all over the UK!”
Skin Cupid began life in 2020 as a purely online brand. It quickly took off, setting social media alive just at the time when K-Beauty was really heating up, and is now considered the biggest Korean beauty brand in the UK. In November founder Melody Yuan took the leap into bricks and mortar with the company’s first physical store, in Charing Cross, telling Retail Week “we want to be all over the UK!”. Clearly Yuan wasn’t just wishing: in April she confirmed the signing of a store-in-store partnership, with John Lewis no less.
UK fastest-growing market for K-Beauty worldwide
The UK is officially one of the world’s most rapidly-increasing markets for K-Beauty products (click translate to read article), according to the Korean Trade Association's Trade Statistics Service K-stat. Korean imports to the UK in Q1 2026 were +161% on the same period the year before, compared with an overall growth in Europe of 58%. No surprise then that the UK’s biggest beauty retailer Boots proudly boasted in December that it had sold “one K-beauty product every 15 seconds” that year.
PROPERTY
Bunsik looking beyond UK with franchise model
Less than five years ago Korean-style corn dog specialist Bunsik was operating from a solo restaurant in Leicester Square. In April the self-styled ‘viral Korean street food sensation’ announced another four restaurants sites, in one go, taking its total to 13. With a franchise model in place, many more are likely to follow with equal flourish, both here and internationally.
PURESEOUL ongoing expansion marks mainstreaming of K-Beauty
Of all the names to stand out in UK K-Beauty, PURESEOUL might be the first to come to real estate minds. The skincare specialist is slick, geared for growth - which the announcement of a new 61,000 sq ft distribution centre in the East Midlands underlines - and above all it is hungry for retail space. Plans to double the PURESEOUL store portfolio this year are well underway, so we can expect more buzz - when PURESEOUL opened in Westfield Stratford last year thousands camped outside just to be there
Note the collabs
Retail and restaurant site openings might grab property professionals’ attention, but we’d be wise to watch the partnerships between Korean retail chains and well-established UK high street x. Take the collaboration between LVMH-owned Sephora and Seoul-based omnichannel giant Olive Young. The partnership will see multi-brand beauty and cosmetics retailer Olive Young take a physical presence within Sephora stores starting later this year in the US, Canada and Hong Kong, arriving in the UK early in 2027.
P-THREE SAYS
“The sheer, ubiquitous power of Korean culture has reached the mainstream.”
The fact that Superdrug and, now, Holland & Barrett have invested big money into their own K-Beauty ranges shows one thing beyond the sheer, ubiquitous power of Korean culture. The Korean wave has reached the mainstream. That might not be the best news for those who feel this is, or was, their own little secret. But it means big potential for owners of retail and leisure spaces. Backed by big finance, Korean or Korean-inspired brands have entered the next phase of their growth, meaning a more professional and corporate-minded approach to portfolio building.
And finally… While Hallyu is certainly here to stay, one wave is always followed by another. So the question we’re asking is.. where’s the next hot cultural phenomenon coming from?