Is This Really a Room? Half-Opening Fridges and Cramped Spaces: The Harsh Reality of College Neighborhood Rents

00:00 Intro

00:26 Train Roar Outside the Window... A Studio Apartment Where You Can Only Open the Fridge Door Halfway

02:25 Falling Short of Minimum Housing Standards, But "Price Was All We Thought About"

03:28 Building Dormitories Also Faces Hurdles... Is There a Solution?

You have probably heard a lot lately that monthly rent prices are rising sharply. With salaries stagnant, people say the economic burden is severe because just breathing at home drains a huge amount of money. In particular, young people facing difficult financial circumstances are reportedly being driven into increasingly substandard and distant locations from their schools in search of relatively affordable studio apartments. I went around Sillim-dong, an area where many college students live, alongside a licensed real estate agent.

1. Train Roar Outside the Window... A Studio Apartment Where You Can Only Open the Fridge Door Halfway

First, we visited a studio apartment in Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, with a deposit of 5 million won and a monthly rent of 300,000 won. It measures 14 square meters, taking just 4 to 5 steps to walk from the front door to the window. It is so narrow that it is hard to even fit a bed, and lying down stretches your feet all the way to the furniture on the opposite side. The shower filter has turned yellow, and the bathroom is cramped.

[Kim Jae-guk / Real estate agent: How can anyone possibly take a shower in here? You have to keep the door open while showering.]

Opening the window reveals railway tracks, and a train roars past about once every five minutes. Nevertheless, a contract was signed less than a week after it was recently listed. Normal monthly rent usually ranges between 500,000 won and 700,000 won, so because this is relatively cheap, it is a popular property among young people trying to cut down on housing costs. Let us look at another home. There is a bed in one corner of the room, and a small refrigerator right across from it. Opening the refrigerator door causes it to hit the bed, allowing it to open only halfway.

[It hits the bed?]

To put items inside, you have to sit down, press your body against the bed, and stretch your arm out long. This is a room with a deposit of 2 million won and a monthly rent of 24,000 won. This room reportedly gets signed less than two weeks after being put on the market as well. Another home is located right on a hill. You have to walk up a steep slope for more than 10 minutes, and any positive thoughts vanish quickly.

[There is no need to go to a gym. You get to exercise reliably like this every day.]

Sweat quickly forms in the hot weather. The real estate agent showing the room says he only feels sorry for the young people.

[Kim Jae-guk / Real estate agent: My heart aches when I think that since even more people fail to receive the benefits of government housing policies, those individuals inevitably have no choice but to crowd into places like this.]

2. Falling Short of Minimum Housing Standards, But "Price Was All We Thought About"

There is something called the "minimum housing standards" presented by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. It is a standard stating that humans need to have at least this much to live. According to these standards, the minimum housing area for a single-person household is 14 square meters. However, all three studio apartments that the real estate agent and I toured fell short of the minimum housing standards. Sillim-dong, which I toured, is an area mainly inhabited by bar exam candidates and Seoul National University students who live away from their families. Around Seoul National University, including Sillim-dong, monthly rent saw the highest increase at 26% compared to last year, while Hankuk University of Foreign Studies saw a 15.1% increase, and Yonsei University a 10.4% increase. College neighborhoods across the board saw an average 8% rise, significantly adding to the housing cost burden on young people.

[Ahn Jae-hong / Job seeker: I chose a house like this thinking only about the price and a place to sleep. Hot water takes a bit of time to come out, though. About 5 to 7 minutes?]

[College student: Housing near the foot of the mountain is relatively cheaper. As I looked for the cheapest places possible, I gradually ended up further away from the center. It feels like being pushed outward.]

3. Building Dormitories Also Faces Hurdles... Is There a Solution?

Compared to typical studio apartments, university dormitories tend to ease the economic burden somewhat. However, those of you who have experienced college life will likely agree that dormitories are not places you can live in just because you want to. This is because the capacity that dormitories can accommodate is limited. According to University Alimi, the dormitory accommodation rate for universities nationwide last year was about 23%. That means only 1 out of 5 students can get into a dorm.

[Han Eui-deok / Gwanak-gu, Seoul: I lived in a dorm when I was a freshman, and while it was affordable back then, dorm slots do not open up all that much.]

Even though university dorms are severely lacking, experts point out that the reasons they cannot be built more are a combination of a lack of will from school authorities and opposition from local communities.

[Seo Dong-gyu / Chairperson of Mandalpangyu Union: Compared to the very high amount of funds reserved within the school's foundation, they are very passive in expanding necessary facilities... When they try to build dormitories, there are instances of opposition claiming it causes problems for the livelihood of nearby landlords.]

However, even if dormitories are built, the homes shown earlier do not just disappear. Therefore, arguments are being raised that the poor environments of the private rental market should also become subjects of supervision, much like how public officials crack down on restaurant hygiene.

[Seo Dong-gyu / Chairperson of Mandalpangyu Union: Does administrative authority not identify and manage hygiene management and such? There is currently a severe lack of measures to manage and supervise the housing environment of private rental housing and force renovations into spaces with a bare minimum standard fit for living.]

With employment difficult and insufficient income, high prices, and the burden of housing costs to deal with, the living spaces of young people are becoming even more impoverished.

(Reported by Im Jihyeon | Produced by Shin Hee-suk | Video by Shin Jin-su, VJ Kim Hyung-jin | Video Editing by Seo Byung-wook | Design by Lee Soo-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)

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