In Daechi-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul, a studio apartment with monthly rent in the 400,000 won range is recruiting tenants. The deposit is 10 million won. Daechi-dong in Gangnam District is an area where average studio rent is close to 1 million won. This half-price studio is a social housing unit operated by the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) so that young people can live while paying affordable rent.
According to the sales industry on the 29th, GH Partners, a corporations specializing in managing rental housing, is recruiting tenants for Social Housing Daechi at 414 Samseong-ro, Gangnam District, Seoul. It is located between Seolleung Station and Samseong Station on Seoul Subway Line No. 2, in a building across Samseong-ro from the Daechi POSCO The Sharp apartment complex. It is a core area of Daechi-dong, close to the Daechi private education district, including Whimoon High School and Daemyeong Middle School.
Social housing is dwellings supplied and operated by social corporations and nonprofit corporations, and it has a character intermediate between public and private housing. Aimed at providing low rent and a stable residency period (up to 10 years), there are "land-lease social housing," in which the public sector leases land to the private sector cheaply for a long time and a private project implementer builds on it and leases it out, and "remodeling-type social housing," in which old dwellings are remodeled and re-leased. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, as of the end of last month, there are a total of 105 business sites, comprising 1,793 units, operating in the city.
Social Housing Daechi was created by investment from the Seoul Social Housing Consignment Management Real Estate Investment Company, a real estate investment trust (REIT) established with funding from the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH).
According to the tenant recruitment notice, the deposit is 40 million won, of which 30 million won is lent interest-free by the Credit Card Social Contribution Foundation. Monthly rent ranges from a minimum of 410,000 won to a maximum of 595,000 won. Based on supply area, it is 26.88 to 42.87 square meters.
There are shared spaces such as living rooms with other tenants, but men and women are assigned to different floors and do not use shared spaces together. A sales official said, "Some units remain vacant, so we are recruiting tenants," and added, "If you book your preferred time, you can look around the shared spaces and the remaining vacant units."
However, only Seoul residents age 39 or under who are youth and whose monthly income is 4.31 million won or less, which is 120% or less of the average monthly income for single-person households, can sign a lease.
According to the real estate platform Dabang, as of the first half of this year (end of June), the average monthly rent for studios in Seoul (among row/townhouse studios of 33 square meters or less with a deposit of 10 million won) is 670,000 won, and Gangnam District averages 920,000 won. Gangnam District has the highest monthly rent among the 25 autonomous districts of Seoul.
Kim Deok-rae, head of the Housing Research Office at the Korea Housing Institute, said, "Social housing is desirable in that it diversifies the providers of dwellings for housing-vulnerable groups such as young people," but added, "However, it is also necessary to establish a system in which the housing suppliers that provide social housing secure financial soundness and know-how so that young people using social housing can use it with peace of mind without concerns such as non-return of deposits."