Jeonse Prices Surge and Listings Dry Up... Tenants Being Pushed Out

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It is not just the threshold for buying a home that has risen. Apartment jeonse (lump-sum deposit lease) prices in Seoul are also skyrocketing, deepening the sighs of tenants. Jeonse listings are becoming increasingly scarce, and compounded by the trend of jeonse converting into monthly rent (wolse), tenants' housing instability is growing.

Jeon Hyeong-u has the report.

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Park Sang-min, an office worker in his 30s, is facing eviction from the Seoul apartment where he has lived under a jeonse contract for the past two years.

The new landlord asked him to move out, stating that they intend to live there themselves.

With his current deposit level, it is difficult to find another jeonse home in Seoul, so he is looking into Gyeonggi Province.

[Park Sang-min / Jeonse Tenant: With jeonse prices having nearly doubled or more, and given that I don't have the capacity to earn that large amount of money within two years, I have so many worries right now.]

Over the one-year period following the October 15 measures, apartment jeonse prices across Seoul rose by 10.3%.

The upward trend was particularly pronounced in Seoul's suburban areas.

We visited the largest apartment complex in Seoul to see how much jeonse prices have gone up.

For an 84-square-meter unit, prices jumped from 900 million won two years ago to 1.6 billion won.

This massive complex consists of 12,000 households, but the number of registered jeonse listings across all sizes currently stands at around 700.

The trend of jeonse converting to monthly rent has also increased the burden on tenants.

Monthly rent transactions surpassed jeonse in Seoul's apartment lease market this year, marking the first time since statistics began compiling based on the cumulative total from January to August.

[Kim Jong-woo / Real Estate Agent in Gangdong-gu, Seoul: In the case of older property owners, some prefer monthly rent over jeonse in order to get some help with living expenses.]

Voices are emerging questioning whether the government's real estate measures have been overly focused on curbing purchase prices.

Experts point out that with apartment move-in volumes decreasing until 2028 and a time lag involved in supplying additional apartments, short-term supply measures that can be used as rental housing are needed.

[Kwon Dae-jung / Chair Professor, Department of Economics and Real Estate, Hansung University: To alleviate the shrinking supply of jeonse and wolse properties and soaring prices, I believe it is time for a short-term housing supply policy by easing regulations on non-apartment sectors.]

Opinions also suggest selectively lifting land transaction permit zones in Seoul's outer areas to induce jeonse listings, or adjusting the pace of reducing benefits for rental business operators to prevent rental supplies from plummeting all at once.

(Video Reported by Kim Hak-mo | Video Edited by Park Choon-bae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.