Mid-sized units accounted for less than 5% of the public rental housing on which construction began this year, with about 96% of the total concentrated in two-room and small floor plans. Critics say the Lee Jae-myung administration, like the Moon Jae-in and Yoon Suk-yeol governments before it, has pledged to expand mid-sized units as part of a push for higher-quality public rental housing but has yet to deliver results that the market can feel.
Of the 8,092 units of construction-type public rental housing that broke ground from January through September, only 344 units, or 4.3% of the total, measured between 60 and 84 square meters of exclusive floor area, according to data the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) submitted to the office of Rep. Chung Il-young of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 7th. Units smaller than 60 square meters made up 95.7%. Homes of 84 square meters and those between 60 and 84 square meters came to just 90 units and 254 units, respectively, while units of 40 to 60 square meters totaled 5,095 and those of 20 to 40 square meters reached 2,653.
The share of mid-sized public rentals has been declining. In 2024, the first year such units were built, they numbered 4,057, or 15.3% of the total. That fell to 3,435 units, or 13.6%, last year. Annual figures for this year have yet to be finalized, but through the third quarter the share has dropped to a single digit at 4.3%.
The figures point to a gap with the policies successive governments have pursued. Under the Moon administration, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it would supply about 6,000 mid-sized public rental units in 2022, 10,000 in 2023, 15,000 in 2024 and roughly 20,000 a year from 2025, but actual construction starts fell short. The Yoon administration also pushed policies to increase the size and improve the interior and exterior quality of public rental housing without producing clear results.
The Lee administration has declared it will build 190,000 units of universal public rental housing by 2030, where middle-income households can live long term, but doubts about whether that is achievable are growing. As the expansion of public rental supply is paired with quality improvements, project costs are mounting while LH's financial capacity deteriorates. Under LH's medium- and long-term financial management plan for 2025 to 2029, the corporation's debt ratio is expected to rise from 239% this year to 260.3% in 2029. LH attributes the increase to factors including heavier borrowing tied to the expansion of public rental supply.
Project costs that LH must shoulder for public rental housing have indeed risen faster than government subsidies. While the government's support rate per 3.3 square meters for public rental housing increased 23.9% from 8.426 million won in 2021 to 10.436 million won in 2025, LH's project cost jumped 47.3% from 12.368 million won to 18.213 million won.
"If public rental housing cannot shed its image as old, cramped rental housing, there will be limits to how much the public feels and accepts the policy, no matter how much supply is increased," Chung said. "We need to secure a variety of housing types, including mid-sized units, and sufficient housing quality so that young adults, newlyweds and households raising children can keep living there through the stages of their lives."
"Public rental housing should become a universal housing option that anyone can choose when needed, rather than housing for a particular group only," he added. "The government must improve not only supply volumes but also unit sizes, quality and locations, and to sustain that, it also needs to review LH's financial burden and the government support system."
