Average Monthly Rent for Monthly Rental Households 330,000 Won... 6.2% Increase from Last Year

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eunbyeol] In the first quarter of this year, households living on monthly rent spent an average of about 330,000 KRW on rent, which is 6.2% higher than last year.

According to the Statistics Korea Household Trends Survey results on the 23rd, in the first quarter, households nationwide with one or more members (including agricultural, forestry, and fishery households) living on monthly rent spent an average of 328,000 KRW per month on actual housing costs. This figure is 6.2% higher than a year ago (308,000 KRW). Actual housing costs refer to the money spent monthly to rent a house, and for households paying rent monthly, actual housing costs mean monthly rent.

Among the 7,200 households surveyed by Statistics Korea, 19.9% were monthly rent households, and their housing costs have been rapidly increasing recently. Until the first quarter of last year, monthly rent decreased by 9.0% compared to the same period the previous year, but the rate of decrease narrowed in the second quarter (-7.1%) and third quarter (-2.1%), and in the fourth quarter of last year (4.5%), it turned to an increase.

In the first quarter of this year, the increase was even greater than last year. This is interpreted as a result of people unable to find jeonse (long-term deposit lease) moving into the monthly rent market due to the jeonse shortage, and landlords raising monthly rent to pass on the burden of property tax.

In the first quarter, the average monthly income of monthly rent households increased by 6.0% compared to a year ago, reaching 3,114,000 KRW. While earned income increased by only 1.0%, transfer income (34.1%) and business income (12.4%) rose significantly, so overall income growth was similar to the rise in monthly rent.

The monthly consumption expenditure of monthly rent households was 1,984,000 KRW, with monthly rent accounting for 16.5% of monthly consumption. The actual housing cost for monthly rent households (328,000 KRW) was higher than expenditures on food and non-alcoholic beverages (268,000 KRW) or food and accommodation, including dining out (269,000 KRW).

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