[Anchor]

It is not just the hurdle of buying a home that has grown higher. As Seoul's apartment jeonse (lump-sum deposit lease) prices soar at an alarming rate, tenants' sighs are growing deeper. With jeonse listings becoming increasingly scarce, compounded by the shift from jeonse to monthly rent (wolse), tenants' housing instability is mounting.

Reporter Jeon Hyeong-u has the story.

[Reporter]

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

The new landlord asked him to move out, stating that they intend to live in the property 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 risen nearly twofold or more, and given that I don't have the capacity to earn that large sum of money within two years, I have so many concerns 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 noticeable in Seoul's outer areas.

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

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 registered jeonse listings across all sizes currently stand at around 700 households.

The phenomenon of jeonse shifting to monthly rent has also increased the burden on tenants.

This year, monthly rent transactions surpassed jeonse in Seoul's apartment lease market, marking the first time since records began based on the cumulative figures from January to August.

[Kim Jong-woo / Real Estate Agent in Gangdong-gu, Seoul: Older homeowners sometimes prefer monthly rent over jeonse as they look to supplement their living expenses.]

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

Experts point out that with apartment supply set to decline through 2028 and a time lag existing for additional apartment supply, short-term supply measures that can be utilized as rental housing are necessary.

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

There are also opinions suggesting that select areas designated as land transaction permit zones in Seoul's outer districts should be selectively lifted to induce jeonse listings, or that the pace of reducing benefits for rental housing providers should be adjusted to prevent rental supplies from plummeting all at once.

(Camera Reporter: Kim Hak-mo, Video Editor: Park Chun-bae)