Recently, as cases of young residents of safe housing failing to receive their deposits on time have increased, the Seoul city government has introduced tenant protection measures. The city plans to 'advance payment and later recovery' of deposits for priority tenants, and pursue deregistration of new business operators who are not subscribed to deposit insurance.
On the 20th, the Seoul city government announced that it will prioritize providing deposits to urgent wishers to vacate among the priority tenants of young safe housing who are struggling to secure new accommodation while waiting for their deposits.
The plan is to pay out deposits using the Housing Promotion Fund or the city budget, and then exercise priority repayment rights in auctions to recover the funds. For subsequent tenants, the Seoul Housing and Community Corporation (SH) or the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) plans to purchase the distressed dwellings under the lease fraud victim law.
Furthermore, business sites that are recruiting tenants and have not subscribed to deposit insurance by next month will face deregistration as rental business operators. Business sites preparing for tenant recruitment will check for deposit insurance subscription during the 'supply reporting' stage.
Business sites that have not subscribed to deposit insurance will also pursue measures to recover incentives such as increased floor area ratio and loan support received during the construction of young safe housing. There are currently four business sites (944 units) that have been completed but have not subscribed to deposit insurance. These business sites will be required to subscribe no later than next month.
Young safe housing is a type where people aged 19 to 39 can reside at rental fees of 70% to 85% of nearby market prices. Since 2016, 80 locations have provided 26,654 units in Seoul.
However, recently there was a case where a young safe housing business operator failed to pay construction fees on time, leading the building to go into forced auction. The tenants are at risk of not being able to get their deposits back. According to the Seoul city government, four locations (287 units), including 'Kobe' in Sadang-dong, Dongjak-gu, are identified as 'problematic business sites' suffering from provisional seizure and auctions.