[Insight & Opinion] Remodeling: Time to Focus on Dividing, Not Just Expanding

Changes in Housing Types Driven by the Rise of Single-Person Households
Expanding Spatial Separation for Greater Privacy

The government has announced the September 7 Housing Supply Measures. Given the unique nature of housing, where supply is inelastic compared to demand, it is inevitable that some disappointment remains. However, there were clear efforts to reflect the changing trend in household composition. As of 2024, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's resident registration population statistics, the number of single-person households stands at approximately 10.02 million, making it the representative household type in Korea. This accounts for about 36.1% of all households, marking the first time the figure has surpassed 10 million.

The increase in single-person households is primarily due to aging and the independent lifestyles of young adults. Single-person households in their 30s and older tend to live in apartments, whereas those in their 20s and younger are more likely to reside in multi-unit dwellings. In 2024, the proportion of single-person households living in apartments was about 30.7%, a decrease from 34.9% in 2023. This indicates a higher proportion now live in row houses and multi-family homes. The highest proportion of single-person households, at 40.1%, live in detached houses.

Considering residential preferences, there is a need for more small, newly built homes in popular areas. Aside from a rapid increase in supply, there is little else that can be expected to stabilize housing prices. Recently, "next remodeling" has gained attention, which seeks to shorten the relocation period to two years without expanding the building. This approach maintains the existing building's structure while completely transforming the interior and exterior design, applying cutting-edge technologies and services to upgrade the residential performance of apartments built since the 2000s to the level of new constructions.

Perhaps for this reason, a notable measure in the latest policy allows large apartments over 85 square meters to be divided into two units, thereby increasing the number of households available for general sale through remodeling. However, why is this only permitted for up to 5% of existing homes? This is likely due to concerns about apartment overcrowding.

Is there nothing similar in current laws? While not entirely two separate apartments, in the case of new apartments, depending on the characteristics of each complex or local real estate policies, it is possible to supply units designed for separated households or to set conditions related to household separation at the time of sale. Even if there are no specific regulations, local governments or construction companies may allow a certain proportion of separated units or establish special systems. Until now, separated household apartments have been designed to allow two households to live in one unit. Typically, this involves dividing a medium or large apartment, for example, into two separate living spaces with partition walls, allowing for rental income from the separated area.

Therefore, I believe it is necessary to flexibly consider both the new policy and the existing separated household apartment systems. Among apartments sold in the early 2000s, about 25% are in the 30-pyeong range, while 75% are larger, and many households may prefer to reduce their apartment size through remodeling. If overcrowding is not an issue, it should not be uniformly limited to 5%. If the common practice for new constructions has been to allocate about 10% as separated units using partition walls, it would be more realistic to increase the proportion of 1+1 households to over 15%.

Existing separated household apartments have always been a single residential unit. Instead, considering the need for privacy in the changing residential environment, increasing the number of fully separated apartments through remodeling would help alleviate the housing shortage in the Seoul metropolitan area. The latest policy allows remodeling projects to proceed without registering as a housing construction business, similar to reconstruction. This means that simply establishing a remodeling association is sufficient to implement the project. We now live in an era where dividing homes is just as important as expanding them. It would be desirable to fully consider the wishes of remodeling association members who want to reduce the size of their homes as household sizes decrease.

Wonkyung Cho, Professor at UNIST and Director of the Global Industry-Academia Cooperation Center