Sim Sang-jung Proposes Amendment to Lease Act... Guarantees Up to 9 Years of Residence

Sim Sang-jung, Justice Party member [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] Sim Sang-jung, a lawmaker from the Justice Party, is pushing for an amendment to the "Housing Lease Protection Act" that allows tenants to lease for up to 9 years if they wish. The rent increase rate is also capped to be below the inflation rate.

Sim, a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, announced on the 3rd that she will take the lead in proposing a partial amendment to the Housing Lease Protection Act to enhance housing stability for low-income people.

Sim pointed out that "according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's 2019 Housing Survey, the average residence period of tenant households is only 3.2 years," indicating that the stability of tenants' residence has not significantly improved.

She added, "By introducing an explicit right to request contract renewal, landlords would not be able to refuse without specific reasons, which would lengthen tenants' residence periods." The amendment increases the current lease guarantee period from 2 years to 3 years and guarantees tenants the right to request contract renewal up to twice.

The rent increase rate is also restricted to be determined within the range that does not exceed the previous year's inflation rate.

On the same day, Sim also took the lead in proposing a partial amendment to the Korea Housing Finance Corporation Act. This amendment includes adding residential officetels to the list of housing eligible for housing pensions. The purpose is to alleviate the housing burden for elderly residents living in officetels.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.