Data shows that 72% of former residents who moved out of Seoul's long-term jeonse housing successfully purchased their own homes and are currently living in self-owned properties.

This indicates that the long-term jeonse housing system is effectively fulfilling its role as a "housing ladder," serving as a stepping stone for homeless citizens to achieve homeownership.

With the first 20-year maturity period of long-term jeonse homes approaching in about a year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government held a talk session titled "From Long-Term Jeonse to My Home: Seoul's Housing Ladder Hope Talk" at the Seoul City Hall conference hall to announce these survey results.

The event was attended by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, 13 current and former residents who have successfully bought homes or are preparing to do so through long-term jeonse housing, and housing and real estate experts.

According to the city, a 2022 panel survey on SH Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation public rental housing residents showed that the 1,708 households that moved out of long-term jeonse housing between 2016 and 2021 had an average residency period of 8 years and 4 months, and 72% of them lived in their own homes after moving out.

This figure is 12 percentage points higher than the homeownership rate (60%) of former residents across all public rental housing types.

Furthermore, households that moved out before the expiration of their contract period since the implementation of the system (as of this month) numbered 15,529, accounting for 34% of the cumulative supply based on SH statistics.

Among them, 82.4% moved out voluntarily at the request of the contractor to purchase their own homes or move to private jeonse properties.

Seoul introduced mid-to-large-sized long-term jeonse housing for the first time nationwide in 2007, supplying a total of 38,296 units to date and supporting housing stability for a cumulative 45,715 households.

As of this year, the average deposit for long-term jeonse housing stands at 293 million KRW, which is about 41% of the average jeonse price for apartments in Seoul (711.78 million KRW based on KB Real Estate data for August).

The Seoul Metropolitan Government analyzed that the reduced housing cost burden led tenant households to save money and prepare for subscription savings (cheongyak).

In fact, the 2022 SH panel survey revealed that 69.9% of households living in long-term jeonse housing saved an average of 625,000 KRW per month, and the subscription savings account ownership rate reached 83.7%.

At the event, stories were shared of citizens who reduced their housing costs through long-term jeonse housing and successfully bought homes or prepared for housing upgrades through savings and subscription accounts.

A resident surnamed Kim in Guro-gu's long-term jeonse housing said, "Living stably with a low deposit allowed me to save little by little, which became the foundation for purchasing my own home."

According to the city, early resident households that have completed their 20-year maturity will begin moving out starting next year.

Accordingly, starting with 310 units next year, the city plans to reclaim about 9,300 units whose maturity arrives by 2031, and resupply them as "Mirinaejib" for youths and newlyweds as well as long-term jeonse housing.

Units reaching the 20-year maturity will be resupplied without contract extensions or sales conversions, and the city plans to provide prior counseling and on-site briefing sessions to ensure the stable relocation of maturing households.

In a "Citizen Awareness Survey on Long-Term Jeonse Housing" conducted by Hankook Research on behalf of the Seoul Metropolitan Government from August 10 to 19 targeting 1,000 Seoul citizens, 73.9% expressed support for the relocation of residents after a 20-year residency.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to additionally supply 17,500 units of Mirinaejib by 2030 and push for the ground-breaking of 310,000 housing units by 2031 through initiatives such as Rapid Integrated Planning 2.0 and MoaTown.

The vision is to expand opportunities for citizens to purchase their own homes through sufficient new housing supplies moving forward.

Mayor Oh Se-hoon stated, "Long-term jeonse housing serves as a stepping stone that eases housing worries and allows people to accumulate assets to move toward homeownership," adding, "We will maintain a virtuous cycle where housing vacated after homeownership leads to opportunities for the next homeless citizens."

He emphasized, "We will meticulously oversee long-term jeonse housing so that it firmly establishes itself as a housing ladder of hope for Seoul citizens."

(Photo: Yonhap News)