As jeonse (a Korean lease system requiring a large lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent) prices for Seoul apartments climb and rental listings shrink, more tenants are paying higher deposits to stay where they are rather than move. They fear that once they leave, they will struggle to find another home on comparable terms. With housing supply tight, rules on multiple-home owners tightened and policy centered on owner-occupancy, the rental squeeze has deepened to the point that one in two jeonse contracts on Seoul apartments is now a renewal, limiting residential mobility.
An analysis of data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's actual transaction price disclosure system, released on the 29th, showed that 39,224 of the 77,264 jeonse contracts signed for Seoul apartments from January through August this year were renewals, or 50.8%. That is up 9.7 percentage points from 41.1% in the same period last year. The share was 27.15% in 2023 and 31.26% in 2024, indicating that renewals have expanded rapidly in the jeonse market in recent years.
Deals involving tenants who left their existing homes to find new jeonse housing fell sharply. Excluding renewals, jeonse transactions for Seoul apartments dropped 38.0% to 38,040 in the January-August period this year from 61,321 a year earlier. That decline is steeper than the 25.7% drop in total jeonse transactions. With tenants staying put rather than moving, mobility in the jeonse market has fallen significantly.
Government housing policy is also cited as a factor worsening the jeonse shortage. Owner-occupancy requirements under the land transaction permit system and rules on multiple-home owners have curtailed the private supply of jeonse housing, while tighter lending rules have made it harder for tenants to move. Combined with a shortage of newly built homes, this is narrowing tenants' options and weakening the housing ladder, critics say.
