Popular National Standard Rental Housing Dries Up... Only 9% Expected Over the Next 4 Years

Song Seok-jun, Member of the People Power Party

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] From next year until 2025, only 9% of the public rental housing supplied nationwide will consist of units with a preferred exclusive area of 61 to 85㎡.

According to data submitted by the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) to Song Seokjun, a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the People Power Party, among the 224,000 construction-type public rental housing units LH plans to supply over the next four years, 66% (149,000 units) are 40㎡ or smaller. This means two out of three public rental houses are small units around 10 pyeong.

On the other hand, the number of rental housing units with an exclusive area of 61 to 85㎡, suitable for 3-4 person households, was only 19,000 units. Considering the completion period and the time until tenant selection, Song pointed out that these will only be supplied starting from 2024.

The problem is that small-sized rental housing units already show a high vacancy rate. The vacancy rates were high in small-sized units across national rental, permanent rental, and Happy Housing. In particular, among Happy Housing units under 40㎡, 8,921 out of 72,372 units (12.9%) were confirmed to be vacant. The vacancy rate for units under 20㎡ reached 17.8%.

Song said, "During the four years of the Moon Jae-in administration, public rental housing increased by 500,000 units, but the vacancy rate also surged because the quantitative expansion focused on quantity without meeting the public's demand for spacious and comfortable homes." He added, "When supplying new public rental housing, it is necessary to avoid small-sized units that induce high vacancy rates and focus on supplying medium to large-sized units."

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