Over the past seven years, the number of Seoul apartment households on jeonse fell by more than 30,000, while those on monthly rent, including banjeonse, increased by more than 50,000.
According to the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) on the 17th, as of 2024, Seoul apartment households on jeonse numbered 371,972, or 61.9%, and households on monthly rent (with or without a deposit) numbered 229,029, or 38.1%. In 2017, when the current sampling system began, jeonse households numbered 406,855, or 69.7%, and monthly rent households numbered 177,269, or 30.3%.
Over seven years, the jeonse share fell by 7.8 percentage points (p), while the monthly rent share rose by the same margin. In household numbers, monthly rent increased by 51,760 households, and jeonse decreased by 34,883.
During the same period, total tenant households in Seoul apartments edged up from 584,124 to 601,001, an increase of about 17,000 households.
By period, the monthly rent share was lowest during COVID-19 in 2020 at 28.8% (172,876 households) and then climbed by nearly 10 percentage points (p) to 38.4% in 2021. It dipped somewhat to 37.2% in 2022 and 35.6% in 2023, but rose again to 38.1% in 2024.
Recently, some expect this shift toward monthly rent to strengthen further in the market. The view is that the jeonse market could contract under the latest real estate tax overhaul that emphasizes "actual residence." As tax burdens rise for multiple-home owners and nonresident single-home owners, more landlords may either dispose of their dwellings or choose monthly rent over jeonse.