Starting next year, as the first 20-year terms of Seoul's long-term jeonse dwellings (Shift) come due, conflicts between residents and the Seoul Metropolitan Government are intensifying. Some residents are demanding extensions of the lease term or conversion to sale, but the city says it is difficult to accept the requests, citing fairness in the supply of public rental dwellings.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on the 30th, as of the first half of this year, long-term jeonse dwellings totaled 37,712 households, including Long-term Jeonse II "Mirinae Home." Pure long-term jeonse dwellings number 20,746 households, with 10,661 households converted to national rental and 6,305 households converted to public rental.
Long-term jeonse dwellings are a system introduced in 2007 to provide dwellings long term at or below 80% of the surrounding jeonse market price to stabilize housing for citizens without homes. Contracts are renewed every two years, allowing residence for up to 20 years. The initial recruitment notice for tenants and the lease agreement also specify that the maximum residence period is 20 years and that there is no conversion to sale.
Starting next year, households that have completed the full 20-year term will begin to appear in earnest. The expiring volume starts with 310 households next year. The expiring volume surges from 310 households next year to 682 in 2028, 1,747 in 2029, 2,452 in 2030, and 4,170 in 2031. The total over five years is 9,361 households.
Some residents facing expiration argue that, as Seoul home prices and jeonse prices have risen sharply over nearly 20 years and some residents have reached old age, the residence period should be further extended or households meeting certain conditions should be given an opportunity for conversion to sale.
They also say that since Long-term Jeonse II "Mirinae Home," supplied to newlyweds, offers an opportunity for conversion to sale if certain conditions are met, a similar option should be provided for the existing long-term jeonse as well.
However, the city views the existing long-term jeonse and Mirinae Home as different in the very purpose of the system, target beneficiaries, and support conditions, making it difficult to apply the same criteria. The city says that uniformly extending the residence period for existing long-term jeonse could eliminate opportunities for new citizens without homes to move in, weakening the "circulation structure of public rental dwellings."
In particular, allowing contract extensions or conversion to sale for specific expiring households could raise fairness issues, which the city cites as a reason it cannot accept the residents' demands. This is because it could create discrimination against tenants who have already moved out under the same conditions or secured separate housing.
There are also concerns that, with thousands of households reaching expiration in the coming years, recognizing an exception once could prompt repeated similar demands and undermine the predictability of the original contract terms and public housing supply plans.
That said, market observers note that measures are needed to reduce housing insecurity for vulnerable groups among expiring tenants—such as older adults or low-income households—who are disadvantaged in securing new housing on their own.