'500,000 won can't even get you a semi-basement': Seoul university-area rents climb out of reach

Monthly rents near Seoul's major university districts are rising sharply. With maintenance fees added on top, students and young renters are now spending close to 800,000 won a month on housing, and the burden is only expected to grow. Agents warn that rents could climb further during the winter break, when demand surges ahead of graduations and new enrollments.

On Thursday, visits to the area around Korea University in Seongbuk-gu found that studio rents in villa-type low-rise buildings had risen by at least 50,000 won from a year ago. An agent at Real Estate Agency B in Jegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, said the going rate in the neighborhood is a 10 million won ($7,550) deposit with 700,000 won in monthly rent, plus maintenance fees of 70,000 to 100,000 won. "At 500,000 won a month, you can't even find a semi-basement unit," the agent said.

Around Hoegi Station — home to Kyung Hee University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and the University of Seoul — monthly rents have also risen 50,000 to 100,000 won from a year ago, now settling at 600,000 to 700,000 won with deposits of 5 million to 10 million won. The head of Real Estate Agency A said rooms that used to rent for 400,000 to 500,000 won are now being listed at 700,000 to 800,000 won, and they still get leased because rental supply is so tight. "There are rooms at 400,000 won, but they're run-down — cockroaches and all," the agent added.

The data back up what agents are seeing on the ground. According to the Korea Real Estate Board, the average monthly rent for small studio units (under 40 square meters) in low-rise multi-unit housing in Seoul rose from 633,000 won in September last year to 680,000 won in September this year. Over the same period, the average monthly rent for small officetels climbed from 775,000 won to 812,000 won.

High-rent officetel contracts near university campuses have also multiplied. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's actual transaction price disclosure system, 200 officetel contracts at 1 million won or more per month were signed in Daehyeon-dong, Seodaemun-gu — near Yonsei University and Ewha Womans University — in the first nine months of this year, up 42.9 percent from 140 contracts in the same period last year.

The higher rents have hit students and their parents hard. The head of Real Estate Agency C in Hoegi-dong said families typically come in expecting to pay 500,000 to 600,000 won a month, but when it comes down to it, they are not satisfied with what that budget gets them. "In the end, they sign for a more expensive place because their child likes it better," the agent said.

A first-year student surnamed Lee (21) at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, who moved out on her own for the first time this year, is paying a 10 million won deposit and 700,000 won a month for a 16-square-meter studio. "My parents and I went around looking at rooms before I enrolled. I knew it would be expensive, but seeing the actual prices was a shock," Lee said. "I'm grateful to my parents, but I also feel sorry."

Young people who have rented near universities for years said they feel the rent increases most acutely. Han (26), a Korea University graduate who has started working, said that after moving into a place near Bomun Station in 2021 and staying without any rent increases, he went looking for a new place last November only to find rents had risen 50 percent. "The minimum wage doesn't seem to have gone up by much, but the housing cost burden just keeps growing — it felt hopeless," he said.

Han now lives in a two-room unit with a 20 million won deposit and 900,000 won in monthly rent — 300,000 won more than before, yet in a worse-condition apartment. "Rents near my workplace were completely out of the question, so I had no choice but to stay in the same neighborhood," he said. "I just moved across the street, and now I'm paying 1.5 times the rent for a place in worse shape." He added that even this was a relative bargain, found only after extensive legwork — well below the going rate in the area.

Kim (25), a Korea University graduate on a leave of absence, also started renting in the summer of 2022 with a 5 million won deposit and 480,000 won a month, but when he returned from a student exchange program in 2024, a similarly sized room cost him a 10 million won deposit and 550,000 won a month. "I envy friends who don't have to work part-time jobs," Kim said. "My biggest worry these days is how I'll manage housing costs when I finally get a job and have to move."

Some landlords have also been shifting toward semi-jeonse arrangements by raising deposits significantly. The head of Real Estate Agency D near Korea University said that while deposits of 5 million to 10 million won used to be the norm, cases of 20 million to 40 million won have begun to appear. "University neighborhoods traditionally had low deposits, but by my sense, the share of those typical low-deposit rentals has shrunk by nearly 20 percent," the agent said.

Agents pointed to the tax burden on rental property owners as one driver of the increases. The head of Real Estate Agency A said landlords complain that their comprehensive real estate tax bills are "obscenely high," and that those costs are ultimately being passed on through higher monthly rents.

There was broad consensus among agents that rents would rise further over the coming winter break. In university neighborhoods, lease signings concentrate between late December and early February, when graduations, new enrollments and international student arrivals all overlap. The head of Real Estate Agency D said rents could climb another 5 percent or so this winter, noting that landlords have been asking agents whether it is acceptable to charge more given rising prices across the board.

Experts also expect the upward trend to continue for now. Lee Dong-hyun, a senior real estate specialist at Hana Bank, said the increases reflect a combination of factors: a broadly strong jeonse and monthly rent market across Seoul, rising consumer prices, and the tax burden on landlords. "There is also a tendency for landlords to try to pass their increased costs on to tenants," Lee said, adding that "given current market conditions, it will not be easy for monthly rents to come down."