Jin Sun-mi: "Rental Housing Is No Different from the Apartment I Live In... We Must Abandon the Illusion"

"The biggest problem is the belief that it must be an apartment... Various forms of housing are possible"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] Jin Sun-mi, head of the Future Housing Promotion Team of the Democratic Party of Korea, visited the purchased rental housing site in Dongdaemun-gu and said, "There is no difference from the apartment I live in," adding, "The biggest problem is the idea that it has to be an apartment."

The Future Housing Promotion Team was launched on the 5th of this month after Lee Nak-yeon, leader of the Democratic Party, mentioned on the 19th of last month, "We need to start a new approach reflecting on past real estate policies."

On the 20th, after touring the purchased rental housing in Jangan-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, and Seongnae-dong, Gangdong-gu, Jin said in response to a question about her impressions, "I realized once again that we have too many distorted prejudices about rental housing. In fact, if we give up the illusion of apartments, a much more diverse range of housing types becomes possible."

The purchased rental housing Jin inspected that day, such as Elim House in Jangan-dong, had a net area of 71.97m2, a supply area of 87.04m2, and consisted of 3 rooms, 1 living room, and 1 kitchen.

Jin said, "There are many spaces provided, and we are now considering the quality of housing as our goal. I am confident that this can be arranged in various ways not only in ownership forms but also in rental forms."

When asked about the difficulty for 3-4 person households, who are actual housing demanders, to live there, she said, "All the houses I saw today are close to schools and subways," adding, "I think the biggest problem is the idea that it has to be an apartment. Even compared to the apartment I live in now, there is no difference at all."

Regarding the opinion that the three rental laws should be supplemented as a measure against the jeonse crisis, Jin responded, "No," and said, "When improving the system, the benefits are often not highlighted, and only the resistance to it is emphasized. In fact, looking at the articles, the renewal rate has increased significantly."

A Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport official who attended the site visit said, "The newly introduced public jeonse type offers support up to 600 million KRW, which is a sufficiently large area," adding, "Purchased rental housing will mainly be supplied with houses of at least 50 square meters." Jang Chung-mo, Vice President of LH, explained the vacancy rate resolution measures, saying, "Originally, income and assets were all considered, but in this measure, income and assets are excluded. If there is no housing, anyone can enter, so the move-in can proceed quickly."

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